Cardiff Blues fightback sinks Edinburgh

Editor

Cardiff Blues returned to the victory trail in the PRO14 when they claimed a deserved 19-17 win over Edinburgh at Murrayfield on Saturday.

The home side will be kicking themselves as they held the lead for the bulk of the match but Cardiff launched a stunning fightback in the game’s closing stages and secured a memorable triumph.

The Blues eventually outscored their hosts by three tries to two with Jason Harries leading the way with a brace and Lloyd Williams also crossed the whitewash while Jarrod Evans kicked two conversions.

For the home side, Nathan Fowles and Viliame Mata dotted down and Jaco van der Walt added two conversions and a penalty.

Edinburgh were the dominant side during the first half and held a 14-0 lead at half-time thanks to well-taken tries from Fowles and Mata but the Welsh region came back strongly after the interval and gave a good account of themselves during the second stanza.

The opening exchanges were evenly contested but Edinburgh soon took control of proceedings and in the seventh minute David Cherry did well to beat a couple of defenders before offloading to Fowles, who crossed for the opening try.

And in the 16th minute Fowles turned provider when he got a pass out to Mata, who scored under the posts.

Van der Walt slotted a penalty early in the second half but Cardiff struck back shortly afterwards when Williams crossed for his try.

The Blues dominated the rest of the half and narrowed the gap when Harries scored his first try in the 63rd minute before dotting down again in the 71st minute with Evans adding the extras to seal his side’s win.

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Elsewhere, at the Kingspan Stadium, Ulster were in a rampant mood as they ran in eight tries in a 54-7 win over Zebre.

Rob Herring was Ulster’s hero as he scored a hat-trick of tries and Robert Lyttle, Louis Ludik, Robert Baloucoune and Peter Nelson also dotted down, and they were also awarded a penalty try. Lyttle converted six of those tries and the Zebre’s only points came via a penalty try.

In the day’s early game, Benetton delivered a superb all-round display in a 57-7 demolition of the Dragons at Stadio Monigo.

As the scoreline suggests, the home side dominated for long periods and outscored the Dragons by nine tries to one with Luca Sperandio and Niccolo Cannone both scoring a brace. Antonio Rizzi, Iliesa Ratuva, Monty Ioane, Giovanni Pettinelli and Robert Barbieri scored their other tries and Rizzi added six conversions to finish with a 17-point haul.

The Dragons’ points came via a try from Jared Rosser and a conversion from Jason Tovey.