In the shadow of the World Cup, Glasgow Warriors were kept in the dark as the Cardiff Blues extended their lead in the Magners League with a comfortable victory last night.
They extended their record-breaking run of home victories at Cardiff Arms Park with a five-try demolition of a side on which great expectations have been placed this season.
It helped that this was a third game for the Welsh region, a season's first for Glasgow, but in that short space of time the Blues have already made a major statement about their league intentions.
Warriors got the ideal start after two minutes when full-back Bernardo Stortoni's break into the Cardiff half leading to a penalty converted by Colin Gregor.
Cardiff showed their intent by turning down a goalkicking chance to kick to the corner, and were rewarded when hooker Gareth Williams was driven over for the opening try.
Glasgow had a golden opportunity when captain Alastair Kellock charged down a kick deep in Cardiff territory, and home full-back Nick MacLeod fumbled, but flanker Richie Vernon failed to ground the ball.
That missed opportunity would cost Glasgow dear as the game ran away from them just before half-time. First the Blues broke from deep and Stortoni was sin-binned for a high tackle just inside Warriors' half. Blues outside-half Nicky Robinson landed the penalty, but worse was to come.
Another Blues breakout saw MacLeod burst clear, hand on to Robinson and his kick forward put wing Jamie Roberts in the clear. He gathered to score, Robinson converting from touch.
The Warriors also lost one of their most potent attacking threats in wing Thom Evans, but two more long-range penalties from Gregor did keep them in touch at half-time.
The second half did not begin any better, with the power of 17-stone wing Roberts bringing two home tries in the opening five minutes. First he sucked in the defence with a powerful surge to create space for MacLeod to score, then he grabbed a try himself after being worked free from a turnover and brushing off opposite number Max Evans. That brought up a bonus point and it was effectively game over with more than half an hour to go.
There has been many a time that Glasgow sides away from home would have folded at that point, but this side was made of sterner stuff. Replacement Flanker James Eddie showed real pace to sprint over from his own half after Cardiff spilled the ball.
That brought the Warriors within sight of a bonus point but that was denied, even though the Blues had only 13 men at one point when lock Robert Sidoli and centre Tal Selley were both sin-binned, but only after Selley had scored his side's fifth try.
Cardiff Blues N MacLeod; R Williams, T Selley, D Hewitt (T Riley 56), J Roberts (B Blair 71); N Robinson, R Rees (J Spice 60); R Gill, G Williams (R Johnson 71), G Powell (S Roberts 71), D Jones (R Sidoli 15-22 and 51), P Tito, B White (M Molitika 66), R Sowden-Taylor, X Rush,capt Glasgow Warriors B Stortoni; M Evans, G Morrison, D Gibson (S Barrow 66), T Evans (H O'Hare 40+1); C Gregor, C O'Young (S Pinder 52); M Collins (M Low 61), E Milligan, M Low (E Kalman 40, then P MacArthur 66), A Newman (D Turner 71), A Kellock (Capt), S Swindall (J Eddie 61), R Vernon (J Eddie 61), J Beattie Referee P Fitzgibbon (IRFU)
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article