Cardiff Blues 13 - 34 Glasgow Warriors: Visitors show how to win in real style

THIS may provide a relatively small silver lining to the cloud hanging over Scottish rugby this weekend, but at least Glasgow had smiles on their faces after a bonus-point win in Cardiff.

They were able to capitalise on Blues mistakes to show Scottish sides can score tries, the fourth to put the icing on the cake coming in the last move of the game to round off a famous win.

In a strange series of results, it means victories in Dublin and Cardiff were sandwiched by a home defeat to Treviso, but at least both Scottish pro teams were victorious this weekend to make up for the misery across the board on the last.

Scrum half Colin Gregor was the man of the match and deserved the award for his harrying of the home defence and control when in possession, but it could equally have been given to the front row and replacements whose scrum dominance also played a big part. Three tries which owed something to poor Blues defence laid the foundations, the icing on the cake coming in the final move of the game when replacement centre Alex Dunbar made the break for full back Stuart Hogg to score.

Like the Scotland side on the other side of the world, Glasgow came out of the blocks quickly and enjoyed all the early pressure.

They got their reward in a bizarre fashion when a routine backs move went to full back Hogg who was swallowed up by the defence. However, he was then regurgitated out the other side as three or four tacklers let go. Hogg drew the full back and passed to supporting scrum half Gregor to get the try. Duncan Weir converted.

The Blues hit back with a Ceri Sweeney penalty and then Casey Lauala scored from an inside pass from fellow midfielder Gavin Evans.

A routine back-row move inside the Blues half led to a second try for Glasgow. A Johnnie Beattie inside pass left James Eddie with a 40-metre run to the line and the flanker had the pace to make it. Weir added the conversion again.

An excellent kick chase by Gregor earned Glasgow a series of scrums on the Blues line just before half-time.

Eventually, scrum pressure paid off when Blues scrum half Lewis Jones was sin-binned for trying to steal the ball at the base. This time Glasgow opted to take the penalty kick, slotted by Weir, to take them into half-time with a healthy 17-8 lead.

Once the Blues were back up to fifteen, a loose pass in defence by lock Deiniol Jones was intercepted by Glasgow wing Tommy Seymour who sprinted 40 metres to the line for his side’s third try.

It was a night for the tries to come from mistakes in defence and Hogg had his kick charged down on the Glasgow line with Blues flanker Michael Paterson outjumping the defence to grab the ball for the try.

Glasgow has dominance in the scrum and obliterated the home eight in front of the posts for Weir to add a straightforward penalty. It just needed Hogg and Gregor with his conversion to apply the final blow.

Scorers: Cardiff: Tries: Laulala, Paterson. Pen: Sweeney. Glasgow: Tries: Gregor, Eddie, Seymour, Hogg. Pens: Weir (2). Cons: Weir (3) Gregor.

Cardiff: C Czekaj; A Cuthbert, C Laulala, G Evans (D Hewitt 49), T James; C Sweeney (G Davies 64), L Jones (R Rees 49); S Hobbs (N Trevett 69), R Williams, S Andrews (R Harford 69), P Tito (Captain, J Down 59), D Jones, M Paterson, M Molitika (T Young 74), X Rush.

Glasgow: S Hogg; T Seymour, R Dewey (P Horne 59), T Nathan (A Dunbar 73), C Shaw; D Weir (H Pyrgos 76), C Gregor; G Reid (R Grant 26), F Gillies (P MacArthur 40), M Cusack (E Kalman 59), R Verbakel ( Pitman 77), T Ryder (R Wilson 63), J Eddie, R Harley (Captain), J Beattie.

Referee: J Lacey (IRFU). Attendance: 8,198.