Edinburgh floors Cardiff with second-half surge
MATCH REPORT: Cardiff’s impressive United Rugby Championship run came to an abrupt halt as Edinburgh secured a deserved victory at the Arms Park.
After three consecutive victories, the hosts looked set for a fourth when they led 17-15, but a strong performance from Edinburgh took the game away from them in the final quarter.
Edinburgh’s tries came from Ben Muncaster, Luke Crosbie and Patrick Harrison with Emiliano Boffelli adding two penalties and two conversions.
Thomas Young scored a try for Cardiff. There was also a penalty try award with Jarrod Evans kicking a penalty and a conversion.
Edinburgh took an early lead with a simple penalty from Boffelli and that advantage was soon extended when the full-back’s break put the defence on the back foot to create an overlap try for Muncaster.
Cardiff needed a quick response and looked to have got one when Rhys Carre finished off a succession of forward drives to crash over but TMO replays showed the prop making a double movement.
The Scots suffered an injury blow when hooker Adam McBurney left the field before quickly receiving another setback when Young powered over from close range.
Evans converted before Edinburgh scored their second try when a neat off-load from Chris Dean created the scoring opportunity for Crosbie.
Evans succeeded with a penalty before the home side took the lead for the first time.
Edinburgh had no answers to Cardiff’s driving line-outs and from one the Scots were marched backwards at a rate of knots before the maul was collapsed. Visitors’ fly-half, Charlie Savala, was yellow carded and a penalty try was awarded to Cardiff for them to lead 17-15 at the interval.
Eight minutes after the restart, Savala returned from the sin-bin without any damage done to the scoreboard and in time to see Boffelli put his side back in front with his second penalty.
Edinburgh then scored their third try, again from a forward, with replacement, Harrison, finishing off a driving line-out.
Boffelli’s conversion made it a two-score game going into the final quarter and Cardiff never looked like clawing back the deficit.
Player of the Match
Dean was a constant thorn in Cardiff’s defence by taking the ball up in midfield. This gave his forwards a platform to work from and it was the strong running centre’s off-load that created a try for his captain, Luke Crosbie.
Play of the match
After an hour’s play the result lay in the balance but Edinburgh raised the game to score a crucial try before dominating the final 20 minutes. The visitors had been on the receiving end of Cardiff’s driving mauls but they conjured up one of their own for replacement hooker Patrick Harrison to score a crucial try.
The scorers
For Cardiff
Tries: Young, Penalty try
Cons: Young, penalty try does not require a conversion
Pens: Evans
Edinburgh
Tries: Muncaster, Crosbie, Courtney
Cons: Boffelli 2
Pens: Boffelli 2
Yellow card: Charlie Savala (Edinburgh, 37)
Teams
Cardiff: 15 Ben Thomas, 14 Jason Harries, 13 Mason Grady, 12 Max Llewellyn, 11 Theo Cabango, 10 Jarrod Evans, 9 Lloyd Williams, 8 James Ratti, 7 Thomas Young, 6 James Botham, 5 Rory Thornton, 4 Josh Turnbull (captain), 3 Dmitri Arhip, 2 Kirby Myhill, 1 Rhys Carré.
Replacements: 16 Liam Belcher, 17 Corey Domachowski, 18 Will Davies-King, 19 Teddy Williams, 20 Gwilym Bradley, 21 Ellis Bevan, 22 Aled Summerhill, 23 Cameron Winnett.
Edinburgh: 15 Henry Immelman, 14 Emiliano Boffelli, 13 Matt Currie, 12 Chris Dean, 11 Wes Goosen, 10 Charlie Savala, 9 Charlie Shiel, 8 Viliame Mata, 7 Luke Crosbie (captain), 6 Ben Muncaster, 5 Jamie Hodgson, 4 Pierce Phillips, 3 Luan de Bruin, 2 Adam McBurney, 1 Boan Venter.
Replacements: 16 Patrick Harrison, 17 Nick Auterac, 18 Angus Williams, 19 Marshall Sykes, 20 Connor Boyle, 21 Henry Pyrgos, 22 Jaco van der Walt, 23 Jack Blain.
Referee: Gianluca Gnecchi (Italy)
Assistant referees: Mike English (Wales), Lewis Harrison (Wales)
TMO: Stefano Roscini (Italy)