PRO12: Cardiff Blues, Leinster and Edinburgh win

There were victories claimed by Cardiff Blues, Edinburgh and Leinster in three close-fought PRO12 games that took place on Friday.

Cardiff Blues 30-24 Zebre

First half tries from Gareth Anscombe and Aled Summerhill helped Cardiff Blues to a 23-3 lead at the break. A penalty try after half-time got Zebre back into it but Tomos Williams replied immediately. Maxime Mbanda fired back for the visitors and Andries van Schalkwyk cut the gap further late on. But that’s how it ended as Cardiff picked up the 30-24 win.

Coming into this with two wins out of three, it was not a foregone conclusion that Cardiff would continue their return to form with a straight forward win. But after a quiet start that Blues were beginning to edge, a brace of penalties from Anscombe put the hosts into an early lead. And he was on hand to extend with the opening try.

With numbers down the left hand side dragging the defence around, he went through and converted. And that was followed immediately by Summerhill as he was next to make waves down the left, conversion following for a 20-0 lead. Blues lost Nick Williams for 10 minutes midway through the half for a dangerous challenge, and a penalty apiece kept the gap at 20. And that’s the way the sides went into the break, Cardiff 23-3 ahead.

Cardiff lost a second man early in the second half. This time it was Taufa’ao Filise who saw yellow, penalised for a foul as Zebre put some strong attacks together. And that led to a penalty try that got Zebre right back into the game. Blues were struggling to hold the visitors back and after one push too many, Frank Murphy was left with little choice but to award the points. Canna converted to reduce the deficit to 13.

But it only fired Blues up and a quickfire reply from Tomos Williams restored the gap. Canna tried to clear downfield but Williams provided a stumbling block, and he gathered to go through. He thought he’d got a second a minute later, only for the TMO to spot a knock-on in the build up.

Mbanda kept the try scoring going, with a conversion making it 30-17 with 18 minutes still left on the clock. But it all started kicking off and both sides lost a man. For Cardiff, Sion Bennett was sin-binned for a no arms challenge. And for Zebre, it was red as Dario Chistolini was he was spotted to have struck a Blues man in the face.

They grabbed a late try though courtesy of van Schalkwyk, with the conversion from Guglielmo Palazzani reducing the gap to six points. It was too late though, as Blues saw out the 30-24 win.

The scorers:

For Cardiff Blues:
Tries: Anscombe, Summerhill, T Williams
Cons: Anscombe 3
Pens: Anscombe 3
Yellow Cards: Filise, N Williams, Bennett

For Zebre:
Tries: Penalty Try, Mbanda, Van Schalkwyk
Cons: Canna 2, Palazzani
Pen: Canna
Red Card: Chistolini

Cardiff Blues: 15 Rhun Williams, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Rey Lee-Lo, 12 Willis Halaholo, 11 Aled Summerhill, 10 Gareth Anscombe, 9 Tomos Williams, 8 Nick Williams, 7 Ellis Jenkins (c), 6 Josh Navidi, 5 Macauley Cook, 4 Jarrad Hoeata, 3 Taufa'ao Filise, 2 Kristian Dacey, 1 Rhys Gill
Replacements: 16 Kirby Myhill, 17 Corey Domachowski, 18 Scott Andrews, 19 James Down, 20 Sion Bennett, 21 Lloyd Williams, 22 Steve Shingler, 23 Matthew Morgan

Zebre: 15 Edoardo Padovani, 14 Kayle Van Zyl, 13 Giulio Bisegni, 12 Tommaso Castello (c), 11 Mattia Bellini, 10 Carlo Canna, 9 Marcello Violi, 8 Derick Minnie, 7 Jacopo Sarto, 6 Maxime Mbandà, 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Gideon Koegelenberg, 3 Pietro Ceccarelli, 2 Oliviero Fabiani, 1 Andrea Lovotti
Replacements: 16 Tommaso D'Apice, 17 Guillermo Roan, 18 Dario Chistolini, 19 Joshua Furno, 20 Andries Van Schalkwyk, 21 Guglielmo Palazzani, 22 Kurt Baker, 23 Matteo Pratichetti

Referee: Frank Murphy (Ireland)
Assistant Referees: Nigel Correll (Ireland), Ben Whitehouse (Wales)
TMO: Kevin Beggs (Ireland)

Edinburgh 24-20 Dragons

Shocking recent form between those two ensured it was never going to be a classic, and that’s exactly how the first half turned out. Pat Howard’s try was the highlight as Newport went into the break ahead 10-3. Carl Meyer extended the lead but late tries from Blair Kinghorn and Damien Hoyland kept Edinburgh’s hopes alive.

And a final minute try from Grant Gilchrist stole victory for the hosts in a 24-20 win.

It was an incredibly tight opening at Myreside, so much so that only three points troubled the scoreboard inside the first quarter. Jason Tovey was the man to kick those through on 10 minutes to put the hosts into a slender lead, and that was as exciting as it got in the first 30. Neither side was able to get properly on top and that led to a slow game, not too surprising considering recent form.

But Dragons grabbed the first try as the half wore on. Howard and O’Brien put the points up to seven as the visitors took the lead for the first time, with a penalty from O’Brien putting Dragons 10-3 ahead at the break.

They extended the lead early in the second 40 with another try, this one coming from Meyer, with O’Brien making no mistake to put a 14 point gap between the sides. Edinburgh thought the lead had been cut but a try was ruled out and Allan Dell was shown a yellow card at the same time to compound the misery as the hosts continued to struggle to turn things around.

O’Brien fired through another penalty to make it 17 points ahead for Dragons, but Edinburgh had something to cheer with their first try. Tovey played a part in it and his offload sent Kinghorn who stretched over. And things got better as Tovey this time fed Hoyland, who made his way over. Conversion followed and the gap was just five – and that gap disappeared at the death.

Gilchrist got through at the end, with the TMO giving the all clear. And Tovey finished it off as Edinburgh stole the win in a frantic finale.

The scorers:

For Edinburgh:
Tries: Kinghorn, Hoyland, Gilchrist
Cons: Tovey 3
Pen: Tovey
Yellow Card: Dell

For Dragons:
Tries: Howard, Meyer
Cons: O'Brien 2
Pens: O'Brien 2
Yellow Card: Davies

Edinburgh: 15 Glenn Bryce, 14 Damien Hoyland, 13 Chris Dean, 12 Junior Rasolea, 11 Rory Scholes, 10 Jason Tovey, 9 Nathan Fowles, 8 Cornell du Preez, 7 Hamish Watson, 6 Viliame Mata, 5 Ben Toolis, 4 Grant Gilchrist (c), 3 Simon Berghan, 2 George Turner, 1 Allan Dell
Replacements: 16 Ross Ford, 17 Murray McCallum, 18 Kevin Bryce, 19 Fraser McKenzie, 20 John Hardie, 21 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, 22 Duncan Weir, 23 Blair Kinghorn

Dragons: 15 Carl Meyer, 14 Adam Hughes, 13 Sam Beard, 12 Jack Dixon, 11 Pat Howard, 10 Angus O’Brien, 9 Charlie Davies, 8 Ollie Griffiths, 7 Nic Cudd, 6 Lewis Evans (c), 5 Cory Hill, 4 Matthew Screech, 3 Brok Harris, 2 Thomas Rhys Thomas, 1 Thomas Davies
Replacements: 16 Rhys Buckley, 17 Phil Price, 18 Craig Mitchell, 19 Rynard Landman, 20 Harrison Keddie, 21 Owain Leonard, 22 Geraint Rhys Jones, 23 Tom Prydie

Referee: Dan Jones (Wales)
Assistant Referees: Wayne Davies (Wales), Cammy Rudkin (Scotland)
TMO: Jon Mason (Wales)

Leinster 31-30 Glasgow

Dominic Ryan’s early try was followed by Rory O’Loughlin as Leinster went on the front foot inside the first 20 minutes. Peter Dooley got a third as Leinster went in 23-6 to the good. Adam Ashe went through for Glasgow early in the second half but Zane Kirchner grabbed the bonus point try for Leinster with 20 to play. Lee Jones again made Leinster worry with Glasgow’s second try and the lead changed hands when Finn Russell went through.

But a late penalty from Joey Carbery gave Leinster a 31-30 victory, with Glasgow unable to fight back after a power outage.

Peter Horne’s early penalty was quickly eradicated with Leinster getting the opening try. Ryan grabbed it for the hosts and Ross Byrne’s extras put their side into the early ascendancy, and a second try was a history maker. O’Loughlin went through nine minutes in and after the TMO gave it the all clear, that brought up the most tries in a PRO12 campaign.

Horne cut the gap down to six with a second penalty, but a Byrne penalty kept a healthy gap between the sides – one which was extended with a third try. Dooley grabbed it after being at the heart of the maul, coming following a line-out. The conversion didn’t follow but Blues went into half-time 23-6 ahead thanks to Byrne right on the whistle.

Glasgow started the second half strongly and grabbed their first try soon into it. After pushing for a while, the gap finally appeared and Ashe nipped the ball over to get Warriors back into the game. They lost Leonardo Sarto to the sin-bin though as Leinster upped the tempo, although Warriors defended firmly and actually reduced the gap further through a Horne penalty.

It didn’t last long though because Leinster grabbed a fourth try. It came after some tidy build up play and when space was spotted, Kirchner went in and took the bonus point. But Glasgow weren’t done and with just over 10 to play, the gap was reduced again as Jones got over the line. And soon enough, Warriors led. Russell got it after lengthy build up play, converting too for a two point lead.

Leinster stole the lead back with a penalty with five minutes remaining, Joey Carbery kicking through for a one point advantage. And it must have seemed like an age for the final whistle as both sides had to wait to play the remaining 90 seconds after a power outage, the lights going out as the clock ticked towards 80. But after the RDS was brightened back up, Leinster saw out the 31-30 win.

The scorers:

For Leinster:
Tries: Ryan, O'Loughlin, Dooley, Kirchner
Cons: Byrne
Pens: Byrne 2, Carbery

For Glasgow:
Tries: Ashe, Jones, Russell
Cons: Horne, Russell 2
Pens: Horne 3
Yellow Cards: Sarto

Leinster: 15 Zane Kirchner, 14 Adam Byrne, 13 Rory O’Loughlin, 12 Tom Daly, 11 Fergus McFadden, 10 Ross Byrne, 9 Nick McCarthy, 8 Dan Leavy, 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Dominic Ryan, 5 Mick Kearney, 4 Ross Molony (c), 3 Mike Ross, 2 James Tracy, 1 Peter Dooley
Replacements: 16 Richardt Strauss, 17 Jack McGrath, 18 Michael Bent, 19 Ian Nagle, 20 Peadar Timmins, 21 Jamison Gibson-Park, 22 Joey Carbery, 23 Noel Reid

Glasgow: 15 Tommy Seymour, 14 Leonardo Sarto, 13 Nick Grigg, 12 Sam Johnson, 11 Lee Jones, 10 Peter Horne, 9 Henry Pyrgos (cc), 8 Adam Ashe, 7 Chris Fusaro, 6 Tim Swinson, 5 Jonny Gray (cc), 4 Brian Alainu’uese, 3 Sila Puafisi, 2 Fraser Brown, 1 Alex Allan
Replacements: 16 Pat MacArthur, 17 Gordon Reid, 18 Zander Fagerson, 19 Rob Harley, 20 Matt Fagerson, 21 Ali Price, 22 Finn Russell, 23 Alex Dunbar

Referee: Marius Mitrea (Italy)
Assistant Referees: Rhys Thomas (Wales), Simone Boaretto (Italy)
TMO: Alan Falzone (Italy)