Anscombe the hero as Cardiff grasp late win
What a final. What a finale. Cardiff Blues fought back magnificently to secure their first silverware in eight years with only 65 seconds remaining as Gareth Anscombe landed a nerveless winner despite missing a conversion just moments earlier.
This was no mere warm-up act to the Champions Cup final, more a rip-roaring contest of high quality in its own right, full of ebb and flow, cut and thrust, with a stirring Blues second-half recovery.
Bravo to one and all. If the European Challenge Cup organisers were looking to convert the Basques to rugby’s cause, this was the match to showcase the sport.
“What we trained all season for was to give ourselves an opportunity like this,” said Blues captain, Ellis Jenkins. “It took us 79 minutes but we got there in the end. Gareth is a quality player and there was no doubt in my mind he wasn’t going to miss two in a row.”
Anscombe was a pivotal figure, always busy, always eager to take the game to Gloucester, playing a key role in Tomos Williams’s try 49 seconds after the second-half restart that triggered Blues’ revival. “I can’t believe it to be honest,” said Anscombe. “We came in at halftime disappointed because we weren’t firing any shots. I was knackered – they were two big kicks and I couldn’t miss that second one. I was relieved when it went through the uprights.”
The Blues have been in the doldrums for too long and this may be the springboard that the team and management need to reach out to greater things next season. It was certainly quite a send-off for departing head coach Danny Wilson.
On the evidence of this rearguard display, with Gloucester looking in control with a 20-6 lead at half-time, there is a beating heart at the Blues. They believe in each other and they backed someone to come up with the goods. It fell, finally, to Anscombe and he did not disappoint.
“There is a foundation here for the next group to build on,” said Wilson. “It shows that we can compete on the European front. It shows that we can beat the financial constraints we have.”
The Blues had a torrid time of it, conceding first half tries to Henry Trinder and Mark Atkinson and handicapped, too, by losing backrower Josh Navidi to what looked like a damaged collarbone as early as the seventh minute.
Wing Owen Lane followed suit around the half-hour mark. But they did not splinter, did not let their spirits drop. That character was the telling factor.
Gloucester, though, in their third final in four years, will be kicking themselves that they let it slip.
They also were cruelly treated by the officials on the half-hour mark with a forward pass ruled by Jerome Garces on an offload from Josh Hohneck that led to a try by Lewis Ludlow. Staggeringly, it was not referred to the television match official. It was a costly blemish.
“It was disappointing and it was something that should have been referred,” said Gloucester captain, Ed Slater.
Gloucester got suckered into a helter-skelter style of play. The one time that they reverted to oldschool type and drove hard, they scored from a line-out with hooker James Hanson crossing.
From being measured and assured, they became sloppy and slipshod, eventually losing flanker Ludlow to the sin-bin in the 74th minute, a one-man deficit that was to prove costly as Blues went for the jugular, scoring a try through Blaine Scully struck gold.
It had all looked so different with Gloucester in the ascendant. But the Blues were determined to rip up that narrative and write their own bit of history.
Back they came. First Williams went over, then Garyn Smith, skinning Gloucester down the left flank to put the Blues in the lead for the first time. Gloucester rallied with that Hanson try.
A Billy Twelvetrees penalty eased Gloucester clear by seven points just after the hour mark. The Blues, though, were not finished. Their constant pressure caused Ludlow to come in illegally and be shown the yellow card.
Cardiff took full advantage, Scully scooting in at the corner. Anscombe missed that conversion from the touchline but made no mistake with just over a minute left, striking the clincher from wide out. Brilliant and breathless. before Anscombe