Blues fail to cash in on supershow from Garyn

GARYN Smith took his chance to impress by spearheading Blues to a bonus point victory over the Top 14 leaders Lyon.

The centre had only appeared once in Cardiff ’s opening league fixtures but replaced hamstring victim Willis Halaholo to cause havoc in the French ranks.

His head coach Danny Wilson said: “We know Garyn has a very good defence but his attacking game shone as he found plenty of holes.”

Despite a comfortable win, Blues didn’t capitalise on Smith’s dynamism and should have doubled their victory margin as dreadful Lyon ball retention and ill-discipline allowed the hosts to dominate.

There was a ten minute stoppage while Blues’ prop, Anthon Peikrishvili, was stretchered off with a neck injury and when the game resumed, Lyon scored two tries, the second when down to 13 after Timilai Rokoduru and Etienne Oosthuizen were yellow carded.

Wilson said: “It was bizarre. We controlled the first half and should have been further ahead. We fell away as the tempo dropped, which didn’t suit us, as the long injury delay meant we had to start again.”

The last 15 minutes were Lyon’s best period after looking nothing like a side who had won six out of seven to surprisingly lead the T14.

They did make 13 changes from their last league outing but in the first half-hour, they didn’t fire a shot as Blues frittered away numerous chances before George Earle crashed over.

But within three minutes Earle had departed with a leg injury. However the setback didn’t stop Blues as, from a loose clearance, Blaine Scully and Smith combined cleverly to send Tomos Williams over for a 14-0 half-time lead.

Ray Lee-Lo should have increased this but somehow lost the ball as he went to touch down after he had intercepted a telegraphed pass from Piero Dominguez, son of former Italy star, Diego.

A powerful break from Smith set up a try for Macauley Cook before Kristian Dacey was yellow carded for holding back an opponent to allow the French on the scoreboard with a try from Virgile Bruni but Lee-Lo made amends for his earlier error by claiming Cardiff ’s fourth.

Late tries from Pierre-Louis Barassi and Jone Tuva gave Lyon a flattering final score line.