Penalties give Blues a piggyback to victory
AFTER six straight league defeats, Bristol had hoped that a change in competition would see a reversal in their fortunes but poor discipline cost dearly as Blues began their European campaign with a bonus point victory.
Bristol did display some shoots of recovery by testing their opponents in the opening quarter but then careless errors and ill-discipline set in to gift Cardiff their win.
Bristol full-back Jack Wallace said: “Being at home and in a new competition, we really targeted this game. We focused on a strong start, which we got, as the first 20 minutes were brilliant but then ill-discipline killed us.
“Penalties allowed them to piggyback up the field and this allowed Gareth Anscombe to put them in the right areas as we gave away easy field positions.”
Playing behind a Blues pack which dominated the set piece, Anscombe had an easy ride as his side recov“ ered from two consecutive league defeats to record a morale boosting success.
Anscombe said: “After last week’s heavy defeat at Ospreys, we couldn’t wait to get back in on Monday.
It was a tough and uncomfortable week in training but we had a good attitude and were really hungry for this game.”
“They rocked us in the first 10 minutes and even though we recovered well, we left a few points out there.”
Anscombe’s assessment was fair as his three-quarters failed to capitalise on the superiority of the Blues’ pack in which Josh Turnbull and Rhys Gill excelled with the former dominating the line-out and the latter crushing Bristol’s scrum.
More was expected of the visitors’ backs but apart from Anscombe, they lacked cohesion and sparkle and it was left to Bristol to provide much of the entertainment.
Rhodri Williams and David Lemi both produced thrilling runs to split the defence but Bristol couldn’t make it count, which frustrated boss Andy Robinson.
He said: “We got over the line three times but all three of them were chalked off and the margins at this level are very small.
“The first 20 minutes was really pleasing as it was a step-up in intensity but then we made too many individual errors, which became collective and led to a drop in confidence.”
Bristol’s start was indeed impressive and they appeared to have scored an early try but Tom Varndell was adjudged to have put a foot in touch after a splendid pass by Adrian Jarvis had given him his chance.
Jarvis and Anscombe exchanged penalties before Bristol deservedly scored the first try when Max Crumpton finished off a driving line-out.
Careless errors from Bristol conceded two fur-
ther penalties to Anscombe before a brilliant break from Lemi looked to have set up a try for Williams.
The scrum-half crashed over the line with the referee seemingly poised to signal the score only for his assistant to rule it out.
In the build up to the ‘no try’, Matthew Morgan was deemed to have made a high tackle and was sinbinned before Jarvis kicked the penalty.
However, in Morgan’s absence, it was the Blues who seized the opportunity to take the game by the scruff of the neck.
A clever chip ahead from Anscombe gave Ray Lee-Lo a simple try before Nick Koster was yellow carded for a high tackle on Anscombe, which allowed Josh Turnbull to score from a driving line-out.
Soon after the restart, Alex Cuthbert forced his way over to ensure a Cardiff win before the game deteriorated into a disjointed mess.
A try from Tom James did secure a bonus point before Gethin Jenkins was sin-binned to concede a consolation score to Joe Joyce.