It’s all so easy for Blues

Mar 29 2008 by Staff Reporter, Western Mail

Edinburgh 0-20 Blues

REVENGE is sweet. Twenty points without reply is comprehensive in any language, more than making up for the Blues’ narrow loss at home to Edinburgh in the autumn and convincingly ending their losing streak.

But Dai Young would have preferred a rather sterner test than his team got from an abject Edinburgh performance.

Things will be a lot tougher in Toulouse.

The return of the Blues’s Grand Slam heroes bore immediate fruit with Martyn Williams and Tom Shanklin causing all sorts of problems for the home side in the opening minutes. Desperate Edinburgh defence gave away two penalties close to the line in the right-hand corner.

Twice the Blues took the line-out option; twice the defence creaked but held, the second time held up over the line.

But so rarely did the home side get their hands on the ball that the Blues were able to come again and again, with Shanklin and both wingers all asking teasing questions of the defence, and the Cardiff back row having all the best of the close-quarter exchanges.

With all this pressure, Young will be wondering how it took 20 minutes for the Blues finally to register a score when Ben Blair converted a further penalty to get some points on the board.

If Edinburgh had creaked before, they started to leak now. Repeated changes of the point of attack stretched the defence this way and that until eventually Tom James could canter over unopposed five minutes later, Blair adding the conversion.

Rare Edinburgh forays into the Blues half were halted by solid Blues tackling, Maama Molitka giving Edinburgh’s left winger a comprehensive sacking to prove that there was more than one back-row forward on the pitch.

But with almost unlimited Blues possession, only the odd forward pass seemed likely to stop them scoring.

In the event it was the other winger, Jamie Roberts, who crossed next, making Edinburgh and Scotland’s full back Hugo Southwell look distinctly amateur in a straight one-on-one battle for the Blues’ second score after half a hour.

The closest Edinburgh came to scoring was a long-range penalty in the dying minutes of the half which Phil Godman missed, summing up their first half.

Poor kicking by both sides got the second half off to a poor start, but finally the home side secured some possession and demonstrated that they were not quite as desperate as the first half has suggested.

Simon Webster was dragged down in last-man tackles twice and, after Mike Blair took a quick tap penalty on the 22, John Houston was held up over the line as Blues had been at the beginning.

Moments later, from the resulting scrum, David Callam dropped the ball with the line at his mercy.

In the end, though, Edinburgh were the architects of their own agony, with Ben Blair picking up an interception and kicking ahead deep into the 22. A blistering follow-up by Roberts. won the ball back and though it took a number of phases and a set scrum, good hands put James in for his second try in the left-hand corner.

Another long break-out from the midfield with several men spare only foundered from a slight nudge forward.

But with 20 minutes to go and the game all but won, Young could ring the changes with some confidence.

On came Nicky Robinson for his first rugby for five months and off came Williams and Shanklin to conserve them for next weekend. It made little difference to the shape of the game, with Edinburgh short of ideas, running mostly sideways and backwards It will all be a lot harder in Toulouse.