Blues hang on for dire Glasgow win

Editor

Cardiff Blues held on for a 9-7 victory over Glasgow in a dire Heineken Cup clash in Pool Two at Scotstoun Stadium on Friday.

Cardiff Blues held on for a 9-7 victory over Glasgow in a dire Heineken Cup clash in Pool Two at Scotstoun Stadium on Friday.

The visitors started the brighter, buoyed by their 29-20 victory in the reverse fixture at Cardiff Arms Park a week ago.

It didn't take long for Rhys Patchell to turn their possession into points as the flame-haired youngster used the significant breeze to his advantage and kicked a mammoth penalty from well inside his own half.

Leigh Halfpenny took over the kicking duties from closer range to double the lead midway through the first half and, despite the Blues going backwards in the scrum and being reduced to 14 men after captain Sam Hobbs was sin-binned, the score remained 6-0 until the interval.

The opening period was littered with errors and stoppages and things didn't exactly improve after the restart but the Blues didn't care when Halfpenny extended the advantage even further with another excellently judged penalty from out wide.

The home side finally troubled the scoreboard with 10 minutes left as replacement scrum-half Chris Cusiter delivered a fine inside ball to prop Ryan Grant, who powered his way over from short range.

Duncan Weir swiftly added the conversion. There was only one team in it for the remainder of the match as the Warriors hammered on the door but substitute Weir missed an opportunity to snatch victory with three points from the tee and the Blues' defence held firm.

The vital away win takes the Welshmen to the top of Pool Two, at least temporarily, and keeps them well in the hunt for qualification when the competition resumes in January but Glasgow are now left to concentrate on the league.

The scorers:

For Glasgow:
Try: Grant
Con: Weir

For Cardiff Blues:
Pens: Patchell, Halfpenny 2
Yellow card: Hobbs

Glasgow: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Sean Maitland, 13 Byron McGuigan, 12 Alex Dunbar, 11 Tommy Seymour, 10 Ruaridh Jackson, 9 Niko Matawalu, 8 Ryan Wilson, 7 Tyrone Holmes, 6 Rob Harley, 5 Al Kellock (c), 4 Leone Nakarawa, 3 Jon Welsh, 2 Pat MacArthur, 1 Ryan Grant
Replacements: 16 Dougie Hall, 17 Jerry Yanuyanutawa, 18 Ed Kalman, 19 Josh Strauss, 20 Chris Fusaro, 21 Chris Cusiter, 22 Duncan Weir, 23 DTH van der Merwe

Cardiff Blues: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Richard Smith, 12 Rhys Patchell, 11 Harry Robinson, 10 Gareth Davies, 9 Lloyd Williams, 8 Robin Copeland, 7 Rory Watts-Jones, 6 Macauley Cook, 5 Filo Paulo, 4 Chris Dicomidis, 3 Taufa'ao Filise, 2 Kristian Dacey, 1 Sam Hobbs (c)
Replacements: 16 Marc Breeze, 17 Thomas Davies, 18 Benoit Bourrust, 19 James Down, 20 Ellis Jenkins, 21 Andries Pretorius, 22 Lewis Jones, 23 Dan Fish

Venue: Scotstoun Stadium
Referee: Pascal Gauzere (France)