Edinburgh capitulate in face of late onslaught

TWO late tries sealed Cardiff’s victory over a careless Edinburgh that helps keep alive Blues’ hopes of a top six finish.

For 60 minutes Cardiff never really threatened as Edinburgh enjoyed all the possession and territory.

The hosts led 17-6 going into the final quarter, comfortable in their superiority against a side dogged in defence but laboured in attack.

Even when Sion Bennett scored their first try of the game, it looked to be a sure home victory with a quarter of an hour remaining – but spurred on by their ravenous determination, Lloyd Williams sealed the victory in the waning minutes.

Blues boss Danny Wilson said: “It was pleasing that we have come here in tough conditions and come away with a win.

“The yellow cards did not help us but it shows our character that we scrapped and got the result even though we had 14 on the field for 20 minutes.”

Cardiff’s night had started brightly through a Steve Shingler penalty, but from then on Edinburgh were in control. The Blues seemed to lose their heads, giving up penalty after penalty which resulted in two sin-binnings.

Georgian, Anton Peikrishvili, was the first to see yellow after collapsing a maul and during the tighthead prop’s spell on the side-lines, Neil Cochrane drove over for Edinburgh’s opening try.

Sam Hidalgo-Clyde converted to give the hosts a 7-3 lead, cut to 7-6 when Shingler added a second penalty. Back to their full complement for barely four minutes, Cardiff lost Jarrad Hoeta for ten minutes after the lock killed the ball at the breakdown.

In the seond half the game took a dramatic scoring change. Finding patience and accuracy, Edinburgh managed to extend their lead through a double from Rory Scholes but Hidalgo-Clyde missed both conversions that would ultimately come back to sting.

Trailing 17-6 with an hour gone, Cardiff made their move. Bennett went over for the Blues first after good work from Williams and Hoeta, which seemed to spook Edinburgh. Shingler converted and nine minutes later after having laid siege on Edinburgh’s line, Lloyd Williams, chipping over the defence, came up with the winning points.

Edinburgh boss Duncan Hodge lamented: “We just imploded. I’m speechless. That’s another game we should have won, that’s the sickening thing.”