By Andrew Collins
December 12 2005

The Blues complete a unimpressive 5 pointer over Italian minnows Calvasano as Jonah Lomu makes his long awaited debut. The New Zealander's return to rugby will be the only memory kept from a poor encounter in Northern Italy, in which Cardiff stole a 25-10 win.

Cardiff Blues: R. Williams 7; Czekaj 8, Stcherbina 6, Davies 5, Lomu 6; N. Robinson 6, Phillips 7; Yapp 5, R. Thomas 4, M. Jones 3, D. Jones 5, Sidoli 6, A. Powell 7, M. Williams 8, Rush 9.
Replacements Used: Jenkins for M. Jones, Sowden-Taylor for A. Powell, R. Powell for M. Phillips, J. Robinson for Lomu.

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Jonah Lomu was the name of the day in world sport on Saturday, as he made his return to rugby unscathed with a quiet performance for a laclustre Blues side.

The massive winger hadn't featured in a competative match for nearly 3 years following a kidney transplant and major shoulder injury.

His comeback hardly lifted a very pathetic Blues performance, in which Dai's men managed 2 tries in each half to complete a snatch and grab win over bottom-of-the-group Calvasano.

After a poor start, Cardiff had seemed to find their feet when Jonah's first touch on 7 minutes ended with a try for lock Robert Sidoli, reurning to his parents home-land. Nicky missed a gettable coversion, but had previously recorded a penalty in the opening exchanges. However, minutes later a neat kick inside the Blues 22 allowed winger Vodo to collect over the line, converted supurbly by Kruger.

Mike Phillips, who spent the 1st half kicking away possesion via poor decision box-kicks, made a nice offload to Martyn Williams, who raced for the line from 15 meters to score, with Lomu first to congratulate the 6 nations Man of the Tournement.

Kruger completed a miserable half for the visitors by slotting a penalty as Cardiff continued to look clueless in attack and wasteful in kicking. The lineout was very poor, and the srcum too looked under major pressure as the game never seemed to find any balance before the half, the Capital side led, but with no real dominence.

Half Time
Calvasano 10 Cardiff Blues 13

The second half started as bad as the first ended, lineouts kept going astrey, and kicks were still missing touch.

Cardiff Blues eventually took the initative when prop Castrogivanni was sent to spend 10 minutes in the bin. Mike Phillips excellent break from half way up to the 22 started the move, which was moved wide and eventually finished in the left corner by captain Rhys Williams. The full back's score completed a decent run of form in the last two matches, as he looks to reclaim his place in Mike Ruddocks 6 Nations squad. Nick Robinson converted the hardest kick of the day to add 2 points.

Jonah Lomu left the feild to generous applause on the hour, with Jamie Robinson replacing him on the wing. The winger had failed to make any great impact, but had gone an hour unscathed and will look to build on his his performance with saturdays home rematch.

With Calvasano still down to 14 men, Cardiff enjoyed a purple patch as another clever Phillips break created another try. He took his team into the 22 before offloading to Nicky Robinson, he put an excellent outside-of-the-boot chip in to the corner neatly claimed by Chris Czekaj, who with that try doubled his Blues try tally.

The rest of the match pittered out in very dull fashion as the Arms Park men failed to build on their 4 tries.

Final Score
Calvasano 10 Cardiff Blues 25

Despite an awful performance, the Blues had gone to Italy and done what Perpignan counldn't in claiming maximum points.

ArmsPark.tk man of the match: Xavier Rush
The number 8 was a stand out player in a very poor forward unit. He did supurbly well with poor ball from the front row, got the forward out of a few sticky situations, and looked dangerous in the loose. Mike Phillips 2nd half performance deserves a mention, but his wasteful kickimg in the first let him and his side down.

After the match, all eyes were once again focused on the Kiwi and how he felt he had done on his comeback match.

"It was always going to be tough but I'm just glad to have come through the 60 minutes without any injuries, it was only my first game back and I'm taking things steps by step. The most important thing is that we won the game. We're a team and that's what I'm part of so the most important thing is that the team does well not just me."

Well said Jonah!

In the other match of the group, Leeds beat Perpignan in Yorkeshire 21-20 after having their final conversion attemt retaken following un-sportsman like behaviour from the Frenchmen. The result puts the group wide-open with it suddenly re-becoming a 3 hourse race. It's yet to tell whether the result is good or bad for the Blues, but does mean the race for 1st spot is now well and truely in their hands. With home matches against Calvasano and Perignan to come followed by a cruical encounter at Leeds, its hard to predict a winner and runner up in this one!