A disappointing and frustrating evening for the Warriors in Cardiff saw the Glasgow men go down 27-9 at the Arms Park.
Cardiff opened the scoring with the sure footed Ben Blair kicking two penalties to take them six points ahead of Glasgow and while the Welsh side dominated the majority of possession in the first half of the game and had the momentum of going forward, it left the Warriors on the back foot defending – but they did so strongly. For the first half hour the Blues just could not break the Glasgow 22. That was until Tom Riley set Ben Blair loose and a sharp angle and a couple of side steps later, he had crossed the Warriors line to take the home side 13-0 ahead.
A few flashes of Glasgow’s strength going forward were seen, particularly with an impressive trundling rolling maul but it’s hard to get points on the board without possession of the ball.
Just before half time, Dan Parks stepped up and boosted the Warriors not once, not twice but three times through a try saving covering tackle at their own line and then, up the other end of the pitch, he slotted two penalties in quick succession to take the sides into 13-6 into the break.
It was more of the same in the second half as far as possession goes as Glasgow hardly got their hands on the ball. However, Cardiff at times were their own worst enemies at times with wayward passes and knock-ons galore. To be fair though, it was Glasgow forcing a lot of those errors as they stifled the Blues momentum and frustrated them into losing their composure.
Against the run of play, Dan Parks added another three points for Glasgow with a penalty before Cardiff eventually broke the line and sent strong Fijian winger Mosese Luveitasau loose on the end of a wide ball and into space on the right wing. Kiwi Blair converted.
Into the last quarter of the game and Glasgow’s second line of defence had to work hard as their first time tackles were letting them down.
With quarter of an hour to go, Cardiff’s game was raised again through the Wales centre Tom Shanklin. A wide pass from the base of the ruck from Nicky Robinson stretched Glasgow’s defence and Shanklin took advantage of the gap, crossing the try line near the posts. Blair duly slotted the conversion.
With what little possession and in what little opportunity Glasgow had to attack, Thom Evans looked sharp, tearing up his wing and causing the Cardiff defence to scramble back towards their own line on one occasions and trying the ‘show and go’ in midfield but he was brought down a few metres short each time.
The Warriors were lucky not to concede the bonus point try in the end when a Macleod chip ahead was chased down by Czekaj to chase but he knocked on when trying to touch down and the score remained at 27-9 for the final whistle.

A disappointing night for the Warriors given the excellent result against Munster the previous week but yet another permutation of players tried out for coach Sean Lineen in his quest for the best Warriors combination.

Cardiff Blues: Ben Blair; Mosese Luveitasau, Tom Riley, Tom Shanklin, Chris Czekaj; Nicky Robinson, Mike Phillips; Gethin Jenkins, T. Rhys Thomas, Toufaao Filise, Deiniol Jones, Robert Sidoli, Scott Morgan, Martyn Williams, Xavier Rush (capt).
Replacements: John Yapp (for Filise 76), Gareth Williams, James Goode, Mark Lewis (for Williams 70), Ed Fairhurst, Nick Macleod (for Shanklin 67), Dai Flannigan.
Scorers: Ben Blair (T, 2P, 3C). Mosese Luveitasau (T). Tom Shanklin (T)
Glasgow Warriors: Francisco Leonelli; Hefin O\'Hare, Andy Henderson, Scott Barrow, Thom Evans; Dan Parks; Graeme Beveridge; Justin Va\'a, Fergus Thomson, Euan Murray, Andy Newman, Alastair Kellock, Andrew Wilson, John Barclay, John Beattie. Replacements: Eric Milligan (for Thomson 66), Kevin Tkachuk (for Murray 55), Dan Turner (for Newman 40), Calum Forrester (for Wilson 46-51 BLOOD, 63), Sam Pinder (for Beveridge 40), Colin Gregor (for Parks 64), Sean Marsden (for Leonelli 46).
Referee: Alan Rolland (Ireland).
Scorers: Dan Parks (3P)

This article was posted on 22-Sep-2006, 21:25 by Hugh Barrow.