Blair Saves Euro Blues

By Andrew Collins
December 8 2008

Cardiff Blues maintained their unbeaten start to the Heineken Cup, with a 21-17 win over French powerhouse outfit, Biarritz. The Welsh side were favourites ahead of kick off, but had to rely on the boots of Ben Blair and Nick Robinson, as they were outscored two tries to nil.

Dai Young welcomed back his Welsh internationals, Andy Powell, Martyn Williams, Gethin Jenkins, Tom Shanklin and Leigh Halfpenny, but in truth, they looked tired and out of sorts. Instead, it was the reliable boot of Kiwi Ben Blair which guided Cardiff to their sixth consecutive home Heineken win.

Biarritz arrived at the Arms Park on the back of their coach being fired, misfiring in the league, and knowing that realistically, only a win would keep their Heineken hopes alive. But they didn't seem phased at all, basing their performance on a strong, high pressure defence, which in all honesty was living offside all night, forcing the Blues to kick away possession, into the swirling Cardiff wind.

Nick Robinson, who was declared match fit on Thursday, struggled to control the match, as the crowd were ‘treated' to a display of rugby ping-pong throughout the first half. The fly half's kicks varied in their extremes, with some woeful up and under's followed by stunning 40 metre touch finders, as the wind began to have a real influence on the game.

The first score came after 19 minutes, when the visitors took an unexpected lead, silencing the home crowd. Nick Robinson tried to force it through the hands, but ultimately was dispossessed, gifting Biarritz the ball in the Blues 22, Damien Traille the eventual benefactor.

Traille took a knock in putting the ball down, as an odd few seconds occurred. First of all, Traille was brought down out wide over the Blues try line by Gareth Thomas, but the French centre apparently failed to ground the ball, so got back to his feet to get nearer the posts despite the obvious risks. He did get the try, but was hurt in the process as Gareth Williams did the best he could to stop the ball being grounded, eventually returning to his feet after a few minutes with the team physio.

The conversion was successful, but Ben Blair instantly got the Blues on the board with a penalty. It looked as though that would be the kick start the home side needed, but just minutes after the score, Biarritz were almost in again! Wing, Ngwenya, looked to have done enough to stretch over the line, only to fumble under pressure of an awesome try-saving tackle from Leigh Halfpenny.

Instead, they did manage a penalty to extend their lead back to 7 points, but a penalty by Blair and a drop goal from Nicky Robinson mean the half time score was 9-10, despite the harsh wind and the Blues dire performance.

Half Time

Cardiff Blues 9 Biarritz 10

The Blues remerged from half time as though they'd had a bit of a telling off. There was an immediate difference in the way they used their possession, as the wasteful and poor kicks were replaced with diverse and varied passes, opposing the quick-up Biarritz defence.

And they were duly rewarded with the lead, as Blair slotted his third penalty of the night, though they nearly went on to score a try, should Andy Powell have taken the offload from Jason Spice's superb break.

Nicky Robinson slotted his second drop goal of the night, as the Blues looked to take points from every visit into the French 22. That gave the Pool 6 leaders a 15-10 lead, before one of most bizarre 5 minutes in Heineken history. Biarritz fly half, Peyrelongue, tried a drop goal of his own, only for undecided official, George Clancy, to put the decision in the hands of the TMO. After 5 minutes of being shown the attempted goal from numerous different camera angles, fans at the match were still uncertain as to whether it went over, so tight were the replays. Ultimately, the decision went in favour of the Welsh region, although many people still feel that was the wrong call.

But from the resulting drop out Biarritz scored their second try, as they regained the lead in a tight match. Jamie Robinson and Tom Shanklin got sucked in, as scrum half Cibray ran from the base of a ruck, and as he got the pass away to Peyrelongue, the gap between Tom and Jamie was huge, the Frenchman strolling through to score all 7 points unchallenged.

But Blair stepped up with two cracking penalties before the end of the match, giving a 21-17 lead. But with 5 minutes to go, a moment of sheer madness from Mr Consistent, Maama Molitika, saw the Blues go down to 14 men after the Tongan was sin binned for a punch on French lock, Jerome Thion. Thion pulled Molly out of the ruck, and dragged him a good 10 metres away from play before the Blues flanker reacted. He landed a big punch on Thion, before the two erupted into fight. But somewhat unfairly, Molitika was the only man carded for the scuffle, as fans held their breath with 5 minutes go.

Fortunately, they held out, and the Blues stretched their unbeaten European run to six games, as well as securing 14 points from a possible 15. What that does mean, is that they now have a very strong chance of qualifying from the group, if not in first with a win on the road at either Biarritz or Gloucester, but in being one of two top pool runners up, should they get 5 points at home against Calvisano. That would put them on 19 points, traditionally enough to go through in one of the two extra spaces.

But they'll have to be a lot better come next weekend, as they travel to South of France. There's a genuine possibility that the Blues could pick up a win at the Parc des Sports Aguiléra, but if they repeat last Friday's performance out there, I suspect they'll be on the wrong end of a big loss.

Full Time

Cardiff Blues 21
Pens: Blair 5. DGs: N Robinson 2.

Biarritz 17
Tries: Traille, Peyrelongue. Cons: Peyrelongue 2. Pen: Peyrelongue.

theArmsPark.co.uk's Man of the Match - Ben Blair
Having slotted 5 penalties, claiming 15 out of the 21 points, the pocket full back was the only man who could have picked up the Man of the Match award. Whilst his kicking form was excellent, only missing one very ambitious kick towards the end of the game, he also defended well under the high ball, and covered back well during the numerous bouts of rugby ping-pong. He was the Heineken Cup's top point scorer going to into the third round of matches, and remains it today despite some big results on the weekend.

Head coach, Dai Young said after the match;

"We now have 14 points out of 15 points and we would have settled for that before the start of this tournament. We struggled to get any penetration and to get behind them, but you have to pay tribute to the Biarritz defence. They were very aggressive in that area and we played very lateral. We kicked too much in the first half and we have lessons to learn from this game. But we got the win and that is what is important in Europe and this performance will be forgotten if we keep getting the wins. We knew Biarritz would be really physical and they were and we showed a lot of character and dug deep and got what we needed.Two or three seasons ago we wouldn't have had the mental toughness to win a game like that against a team like Biarritz."

Blair; Halfpenny, Robinson, Shanklin, G Thomas; Robinson, Spice; G Jenkins, G Williams, G Powell, D Jones, Tito (capt), Molitika, M Williams, A Powell.

Filise for G Powell (70), T Thomas for G Williams (70), S Morgan, R Sowden-Taylor, Allinson, Sweeney, James for Halfpenny (75).