United Rugby Championship: Lions outclass Cardiff to seal second win in Wales

Lions picked up a second win in Wales on their trip from South Africa with a United Rugby Championship bonus-point 31-18 win over Cardiff.

After defeating Ospreys, Lions celebrated a win over Dai Young's men in wet and windy conditions.

Lions scored a penalty try while hooker PJ Botha, scrum-half Morne van den Berg and wing Quan Horn also crossed.

Cardiff responded with tries from James Botham and Shane Lewis-Hughes and eight points from Jarrod Evans.

A worryingly ineffective Cardiff side were left to rue the failure to capitalise on first-half pressure when they spurned attacking opportunities while having the benefit of the elements.

The ill-disciplined hosts got themselves on the wrong side of Scottish referee Sam Grove-White and also again failed to defend driving lineouts with two of the tries emerging from this facet.

It helped Lions rally from a 13-3 deficit as they dominated the second half with fly-half Gianni Lombard kicking superbly and Cardiff guilty of a number of basic handling errors.

Faletau returns

Wales number eight Taulupe Faletau had returned after being rested for the 52-24 defeat at Glasgow.

Cardiff made seven personnel changes as Lopeti Timani started at lock with captain Josh Turnbull switching to flanker.

Lions had made two changes from their 28-27 win at Ospreys, recalling Henco van Wyk and Pieter Jansen van Vuren.

Rhys Priestland, filling in at full-back, almost gave away a try in the opening exchanges when his left-foot kick was charged down but the covering Jarrod Evans spared his blushes.

Priestland almost turned try creator after his deft chip was almost gathered by Cabango but the wing was just beaten by the Lions defence.

With the wind at his back, Evans slotted over a long-range penalty before a powerful run by Belcher almost set up an opening try.

The hosts were again guilty of being wasteful in the Lions 22 against some strong visiting defence.

Evans continued unsuccessfully to use the cross kick tactic to Cabango with Lions wing Edwill van der Merwe easily dealing with the danger on each occasion.

The most glaring Evans' error came when he chose to chip again after strong bursts from centre Max Llewellyn and flanker Botham.

The fly-half managed to slot over a second penalty before Lions wing van der Merwe was forced off the field after falling awkwardly when tackling Cabango.

Lombard halved the deficit with his opening penalty before Cardiff suffered injuries to Aled Summerhill and Timani after the pair collided.

Timani continued while Summerhill went off for a head injury assessment which he failed and was replaced by Mason Grady.

Cardiff finally capitalised on their pressure with Botham working his way over for a converted try.

James Botham scores Cardiff's opening try against Lions

But the hosts relinquished control as they conceded a penalty try from a driving lineout just before half-time with Faletau shown a yellow card.

Cardiff started the second half with 14 men and saw impressive Botham forced off with an ankle injury, replaced by fellow Wales flanker Lewis-Hughes.

The home side's defence initially held out but poor indiscipline allowed Lions to expose Cardiff's weakness of trying to defend driving lineouts, with hooker Botha diving over to give the visitors the lead for the first time, an advantage they would never relinquish.

Replacement scrum-half Morne van den Berg crossed for the third Lions try following concerted pressure.

Cardiff had gained no territory or possession but demonstrated a clinical edge so sorely lacking in the first half when Lewis-Hughes was driven over.

It brought Cardiff into losing bonus-point territory and the chance of stealing a victory.

Both distant hopes were halted when Horn beat Priestland for an opportunist score from a kick ahead to seal the bonus-point try and the deserved victory.

Cardiff director of rugby Dai Young told BBC Sport Wales:

"It's a game we should have won. In the first half, I thought we were totally in control and we left at least two walk-in tries out there, we should have had some real breathing space going into half-time.

"In the second half, with 15 minutes to go, the penalty count was 16-3 (against), and when we did get our hands on the ball, we spilled it in the first three phases, so we're hugely frustrated.

"If we could play for 80 minutes like we did for 35, that would have been a good victory but we need to be more clinical and keep things simple when it's on for us.

"We'll dust ourselves off, (next opponents) the Scarlets did a job on us twice last season, so we're going to have to go there, play better than we did tonight, and do ourselves justice."

Cardiff: Rhys Priestland; Aled Summerhill, Rey Lee-Lo, Max Llewellyn, Theo Cabango; Jarrod Evans, Tomos Williams; Brad Thyer, Liam Belcher, Dillon Lewis, Lopeti Timani, Seb Davies, Josh Turnbull (capt), James Botham, Taulupe Faletau

Replacements: Kirby Myhill, Corey Domachowski, Dmitri Arhip, Rory Thornton, Shane Lewis-Hughes, Lloyd Williams, Mason Grady, Uilisi Halaholo.

Lions: Andries Coetzee; Edwill van der Merwe, Henco van Wyk, Marius Louw, Quan Horn; Gianni Lombard, Sanele Nohamba; Sti Sithole, PJ Botha, Ruan Dreyer, Pieter Jansen van Vuren, Reinhard Nothnagel (capt), Sibusiso Sangweni, Emmanuel Tshituka, Francke Horn.

Replacements: Jaco Visagie, JP Smith, Ruan Smith, Ruan Venter, Ruhan Straeuli, Morne van den Berg, Jordan Hendrikse, Zander du Plessis.

Referee: Sam Grove-White (SRU)

Assistant referees: Craig Evans & Carwyn Williams (WRU)

TMO: Ben Blain (SRU).