EURO WOE FOR BLUES
STADE TOO STRONG AS CARDIFF BLUES CRASH TO CHAMPIONS CUP PLAY-OFF DEFEAT
CARDIFF Blues’ season ground to a halt in Paris as they failed to stop a Stade Francais whirlwind at Stade Jean Bouin to end any hope of reaching the Champions Cup.
Danny Wilson’s charges had started brightly, and led 14-3 with 32 minutes gone, but were unable to live with the new European Challenge Cup winners in the second half.
Despite being in the mix for a lucrative place in next season’s European club showpiece, Blues’ defence capitulated to concede seven tries and 43 points in the final 48 minutes.
There can’t be any excuses as their defence went AWOL and gave Stade far too much space to exploit in the first of the wild-card play-offs for the final spot at the top table.
It means the Blues are marooned in the second-tier Challenge Cup for another season after finishing seventh in Guinness Pro12.
Tom James had been due to make his first start for the Blues in two months last night, but pulled out during the warm-up.
Wales Under-20 star Rhun Williams came in, but only lasted six minutes, damaging his right ankle and having to be replaced on the left-wing by Garyn Smith.
If that wasn’t enough, they also lost Samoa international Rey Lee-Lo some three minutes later, with Steve Shingler coming on for him at centre.
Morne Steyn, the South African who shot down the hopes of the 2009 Lions with his goal-kicking prowess, put Stade ahead following an alleged high tackle by bearded lock Jarrad Hoeata.
But Blues hit back with a sensational try in the 21st minute to take the lead following a superb break out of defence by centre Willis Halaholo.
Wing Alex Cuthbert and scrum-half Lloyd Williams (twice) were both involved as they went close before scoring from the resultant line-out.
They charged into midfield and worked the right-hand channel for outside-half Gareth Anscombe to send lock Macauley Cook flopping over with an inside pass.
Anscombe converted that and Nick Williams’ score two minutes later. A quick line-out throw saw Cuthbert make more ground before Halaholo and Lloyd Williams were each tackled just short of the try-line.
But there wasn’t any stopping Nick Williams as the big No.8 powered over for Anscombe to again convert.
Blues had to act swiftly to prevent Stade full-back Jérémy Sinzelle scoring, but couldn’t keep the Paris outfit out in the 32nd minute of an end-to-end first half.
Sinzelle was again involved, before Steyn and hooker Remi Bonfils were stopped just short. However, skipper Sergio Parisse saw they had space to attack and put right wing Waisea Vuidarvuwalu over for Steyn to convert.
Stade would have expected to score from a line-out just five metres out on the stroke of half-time, but the Blues managed to disrupt it and win a penalty to lead 14-10 as the teams trooped off for the interval.
It took Stade less than two minutes of the second half to reclaim the lead, with substitute prop Giorgi Melikidze burrowing his way over following a blistering attack by back-rowers Antoine Burban and Parisse, and leftwing Sekou Macalou.
Master marksman Steyn converted from a wide angle to put them in front for a second time.
Rabah Slimani, the prop who was at the centre of controversy over his use as a substitute for France during their injury-time Six Nations victory over Wales, came on to a huge cheer from home supporters.
And they scored from the scrum which followed to increase their advantage to 10 points as South African centre Meyer Bosman sent replacement back-row forward
Mathieu De Giovanni in for their third try, Steyn again converting.
Stade made it four tries and 26 unanswered points in 27 painful minutes for the Blues with left-wing Sekou Macalou on the end of another move.
There was still fight in the Blues, though, with a delightful cross-kick by Anscombe being parried down by substitute Tomos Williams to Cook for the lock to get his second try.
Anscombe converted and Blues were back in it. Not for long though, as Macalou was worked free to score his second try for Steyn to successfully convert.
Blues were soon back on the attack and seemed on the point of scorin, g but No.8 genius Parisse intercepted scrum-half Lloyd Williams’ pass in the Stade 22.
The Italy captain ran, but knew he was going to be caught, so looked left and put in a pin-point cross-kick for Bosman to scoop up.
Substitute Jules Plisson cruised up in support and drew the final Blues’ defender before passing inside for back-up hooker Laurent Panis to gallop some 35m for a glorious try to kill off the contest.
After lengthy treatment to replacement Kirby Myhill, who was taken off on a stretcher with concussion, that man Parisse was again to the fore as Stade scored a seventh try with substitute Clement Daguin on the end of an attack that had seen the ball go through numerous hands.