European Rugby Champions Cup: Cardiff Blues 12-29 Glasgow Warriors
- Published
Cardiff Blues centre Rey Lee-Lo is stopped by DTH van der Merwe and Huw Jones of Glasgow
European Rugby Champions Cup |
|---|
Cardiff Blues (0) 12 |
Tries: Summerhill 2 Con: Anscombe |
Glasgow Warriors (15) 29 |
Tries: Hastings, Van der Merwe, Price, J Gray Cons: Hastings 3 Pen: Hastings |
Glasgow bounced back in style from an opening European Champions Cup defeat with a clinical 29-12 bonus-point victory away to Cardiff Blues.
Adam Hastings, DTH van der Merwe, Ali Price and Jonny Gray crossed, with Hastings kicking nine points.
Aled Summerhill touched down twice for Cardiff Blues, Gareth Anscombe converting one.
Overall the European weekend produced two Scottish wins and four Welsh defeats.
The emergence of the teams signalled a referee's nightmare, with both strips in a similar shade of blue, but it was the home side who suffered a horror start as Glasgow scorched over for two long-distance tries to lead 12-0 within four minutes.
Hastings cut through for the first following excellent approach work by Matt Fagerson and Van der Merwe, who then finished off an even better effort started from inside the Warriors' 22, with Fraser Brown's long pass allowing Huw Jones to free the winger.
Cardiff Blues' efforts to hit back were hampered by losing two attacking line-outs, while Rey Lee-Lo's scoring pass to Jason Harries went forward.
A break by home prop Dillon Lewis also came to nothing just before the break, with Hastings' penalty having stretched Glasgow's lead to 15-0.
Glasgow started the second half in similar devastating fashion to the first, as Van der Merwe's scorching break put Price over for Hastings to convert.
But this time there was a quick home reply as Summerhill ran onto a Jarrod Evans chip to the corner.
The reversal in momentum proved only temporary and a strangely ineffective Blues were not helped when captain Ellis Jenkins departed early, having taken a knock to the shoulder before half-time.
Glasgow earned their bonus point after 67 minutes, when Van der Merwe and George Horne made ground down the right and Hastings' dink through saw Jonny Gray gallop over unopposed.
The home side eventually managed to work Summerhill clear on the overlap for his second with three minutes remaining, but it was too little too late for the off-colour Blues.
Hastings was named man-of-the-match for an influential all-round display, though Van der Merwe and Brown could also have earned the award with the Warriors dominant.
Cardiff Blues face a double-header against group leaders Saracens in December, while the Scots have back-to-back fixtures against pointless Lyon.
Cardiff Blues coach John Mulvihill told BBC Radio Wales: "There's a flat feeling in the changing room now. We probably let ourselves down the first 10 minutes of the game and the points they scored then basically got them across the line.
"They had a brilliant start, they are a very good rugby team, they use the ball really well and we just didn't cope with that early on.
"I think we had 10 clear line-breaks and scored once, they had six and scored four times, so our finish wasn't there today. It's disappointing but tells us we're not far away from getting it right."
Cardiff Blues: Anscombe; Summerhill, Lee-Lo, Halaholo, Harries; Evans, T Williams; Gill, Dacey, D Lewis, Earle, Turnbull, Robinson, Jenkins (capt), N Williams.
Replacements: E Lewis, Thyer, Andrews, Thornton, Manoa, L Williams, Smith, Morgan.
Glasgow Warriors: Seymour; L Jones, H Jones, Johnson, Van der Merwe; Hastings, Price; Kebble, Brown, Rae, Harley, Gray, Wilson (co-capt), Gibbins (co-capt), M Fagerson.
Replacements: Turner, Allan, Du Plessis, Cummings, Fusaro, G Horne, P Horne, Matawalu.
Referee: Luke Pearce (England)
Assistant Referees: Matthew Carley (England), Jonathan Healy (England)
TMO: Graham Hughes (England)