Rugby – Edinburgh Rugby v Cardiff Blues, Guinness PRO14

Round 13 of the
Guinness PRO14 saw Cardiff Blues make the trip up from Wales to try
to put a dent in the hosts’, currently, successful run. Edinburgh, on
the other hand, were looking to maintain their form with a fifth win
on the bounce to retain their grip on the No. 1 spot in Conference
‘B’.

The first 10 minutes,
or so, were spent, mostly, between the 22’s as both sides tried to
make inroads, with a fair bit of kicking from the back divisions.

The home side were the
first to break through, but they were turned over and the ball
cleared, giving Cardiff a bit of breathing space and the chance to
gain some ground.

Jason Tovey opened the scoring for Cardiff.

Reward came Cardiff’s
way with an 11^th minute penalty which, former Edinburgh
10, Jason Tovey saw over for a 0-3 lead.

Errors from the restart
are usually termed ‘coach killers’, but, on this particular restart,
late replacement, Dan Fish performed a
coach/team/replacements/supporters killer when he ‘cleared’ the ball
straight into the charging George Taylor.

Taylor was then alert to the possibilities and followed his charge down through, collected the ball and dived over for the try. Simple as….

Simon Hickey followed
up with the conversion attempt, but hit the post, so the score
remained at 5-3. Not quite so….

Good defence from both sides meant the match got bogged down at times.

The match then got
stuck back in the same routine as before with both sides trying to
break down the opposition and the opposition resorting to loads of
kicking. Both sides big ball runners had the defence scrambling at
times, but the decisive breakthroughs never came.

The Blues did, however,
make more slightly of this period and their pressure told as another
penalty went their way in the 24^th minute, but Tovey just
pulled his kick left of the uprights, so the hosts retained their
narrow lead.

Five minutes later, it
was Hickey’s chance to score through a penalty, but he hit the same
post as before. Two minutes later, he got another go and scored to
make it 8-3 to Edinburgh after 32 minutes.

Simon Hickey kept Edinburgh’s nose in front for the whole match.

As the match approached
the break, Cardiff gained the upper hand for a time and forced the
Edinburgh defence onto the back foot. Despite the pressure, however,
they eventually settled for another Tovey attempt at goal right on
the whistle.

This time the 10 was
successful and the sides went into the break at 8-6 to Edinburgh.

The early second half
was much the same as the late first, with neither side able to take
control of the match and play just tended to rumble about in the
middle of the pitch.

The first incident of note came just before the 50 minute mark when Tovey was bundled over by Edinburgh’s Pierre Schoeman. Unfortunately the Cardiff player crashed into one of his own, and, following a lengthy stoppage, was taken of for an HIA.

Neither side could much progress ball-in-hand

With Tovey off
permanently and Cardiff reshuffled, Edinburgh gained a bit of an
upper hand and enjoyed more time in the opposition 22 than had been
the case up to that point.

However, the Welsh
defence held firm and the match lurched back into the arm-wrestle of
before with a lot of time spent resetting scrums.

Gradually, Edinburgh began to exert some sort of dominance over the match and went close to adding to their try count as Schoeman and Nick Haining made dangerous runs at the defence, gaining much needed territorial advantage for the home side.

A cross-field kick from
Hickey was almost collected by Eroni Sau, but Cardiff’s No. 23, Ioan
Davies challenged well and Sau lost the ball forward..

The match doctor made sure that John Barclay was ‘sorted’ following some friendly fire

The next chance came a
few minutes later following another period of Edinburgh possession in
the Blues’ 22, the final ball coming as another cross-field kick from
Hickey, but the the opposite wing.

This one was dealt with
successfully by Duhan van der Merwe as the big South African winger
held on and fought through to the line, crashing through a couple of
defenders on his way.

Just as he was close,
the self-same Davies, aided and abetted by another ex-Edinburgh man,
Jason Harries, bundled van der Merwe over the corner flag and into
touch.

But, it was back for a
penalty and Tovey stretched the lead out to 11-6 with eight minutes
still to play.

Jason Harries ‘assisting’ van der Merwe over the line

Although Cardiff did
their best to score next, they couldn’t break down the home side and,
another penalty for Hickey in the 78^th minute meant that
Edinburgh finished off the match 14-6 winners.

So, no bonus points for
the either side in a fairly turgid encounter at BT Murrayfield, the
only match ‘bonus’ going to the crowd as the final whistle meant they
could, finally, go home….

Images from the match will appear here over the next few days.