Edinburgh 11-16 Cardiff Blues: Cardiff exploit Edinburgh's quality shortfall

RARELY have we seen as good an argument for scrapping Magners League matches during the RBS Six Nations window as this turgid affair at Murrayfield last night.

There was plenty of endeavour from the players, hard work and big tackles in defence and brief moments of ambition, but Edinburgh lacked a distinct measure of quality, while Cardiff seemed happy to do just enough without over-exerting themselves to claim a comfortable win on the road.

But should we expect more? In front of us high in the West Stand sat Chris Paterson, Mike Blair, Phil Godman, Nick De Luca, Fraser McKenzie, Alan MacDonald, Ross Rennie, Roddy Grant, Alex Blair, Lee Jones, John Houston, Ross Ford, Mark Robertson, Stuart McInally and others, wrapped up in Edinburgh jackets against the chill, watching on helpless through injury or international duty.

So this is essentially development rugby and, from that perspective, it was perhaps encouraging to see some promising flashes from young trio Struan Dewar, David Denton and Lewis Niven, and more evidence of the attacking threat of Scot-in-waiting Tim Visser.

Cardiff blew early chances to open the scoring when Leigh Halfpenny showed his rustiness in returning from injury by fumbling the ball into the Edinburgh 22, and a foot in touch then denied Richard Mustoe after Edinburgh had again been ripped open down the middle.

The Edinburgh scrum and lineout mostly competed well, but Cardiff held the edge in the physical battle around the fringes and at the breakdown while, behind the scrum, David Blair struggled to pick the right options or, when he kicked, failed to hit the target.

Referee David Wilkinson should have issued a yellow card to Cardiff in the second half, but then we are getting used to watching teams exploit incredibly tolerant officials at Murrayfield.

Cardiff's Test prop John Yapp gave Dewar a tough welcome to the pro game early on when he ran over the top of the debutant flanker and across halfway, but when Edinburgh held on to ball they began to cause Cardiff problems.

Blair was off-target with a penalty from the touchline, after good lineout work by the home pack, but the Blues, bringing the only colour to the game with their change pink strips, responded with a penalty against Dewar for playing the ball in the ruck, which Halfpenny slotted from over 50 metres out.

Cardiff began to unpick Edinburgh through the middle again and after a neat dart from Halfpenny and driving runs from the forwards, Martyn Williams and Xavier Rush combined to send Chris Czekaj over under the crossbar for an easy Halfpenny conversion.

Edinburgh responded similarly and the determination of hooker Andrew Kelly to keep bouncing out of tackles and getting off the ground was latched on to by the pack and they drove on to five metres from the Blues line to set up the best scoring opportunity of the first half, but Cardiff were sharp to Edinburgh's back-line move and swiftly shut the door and won a penalty at the breakdown to relieve the pressure.

Down 10-0 at the break, Edinburgh produced some enterprising play at the start of the second half with Greig Laidlaw leading attacks down the blindside and provoking a penalty, which Blair converted, just two minutes in.

Numbing, territory-claiming service was resumed with a dull kickathon, infuriating supporters, and Cardiff won that with a Halfpenny kick than skewed wickedly along the ground and into touch close to the home line, and eventually led to another ruck penalty which Halfpenny slotted to restore the visitors' ten-point lead.

The mood in Murrayfield did not improve when Irish referee Wilkinson handed Halfpenny another easy penalty in front of the posts as punishment for Tim Visser throwing Mustoe to the ground.

In fact, the Cardiff wing was harrying Webster after he had touched a kick down in the in-goal area and was trying to get up and get on with play.

Within a minute, Visser was almost in at the other end, after good work by the forwards, but Jim Thompson's pass was fractionally early and the winger was tackled into touch.

Still, Edinburgh stole the resultant lineout and attacked, leading to a penalty which Blair converted. With Scott MacLeod on and Steve Turnbull, his fellow lock, and Denton running well in attack, Edinburgh lifted the tempo in the final quarter.

They seemed foolish in running a last-minute penalty that could have brought a bonus point, but their faith was rewarded when Visser blitzed down the left wing to score in the corner.

Blair could not add the extras, so ensuring there was no lingering frustration over the dodgy penalty decisions. There was no lingering anything, just a desire to get home quickly.

Scorers: Edinburgh - Try: Visser; Pens: Blair (2). Cardiff - Try: Czekaj; Pens: Halfpenny (3); Con: Halfpenny.

Edinburgh: J Thompson; S Webster, B Cairns, J King, T Visser; D Blair, G Laidlaw (capt); L Niven, A Kelly, G Cross, E Lozada, S Turnbull, D Denton, S Dewar, N Talei. Subs: T Brown for Cairns 18-29mins, S Newlands for Dewar 50, D Young for Cross, S MacLeod for Turnbull 57, A Walker for Kelly 73.

Cardiff: C Czekaj; L Halfpenny, C Laulala, D Hewitt, R Mustoe; C Sweeney, T Slater; J Yapp, T Rhys Thomas, S Andrews, D Jones, P Tito (capt), M Molitika, M Williams, X Rush. Subs: G Williams for Thomas, S Hobbs for Andrew, both 68, T Filise for Yapp 59, M Paterson for Jones 18mins, A Pretorius for Molitika 55, G Davies for Sweeney 69, G Evans for Laulala 74.

v Ospreys at Liberty Stadium

today, kick-off 5.30pm

15 S Hogg

14 H O'Hare

13 P Murchie

12 P Horne

11 DTH van der Merwe

10 D Weir

9 C Gregor (capt

1 R Grant

2 F Thomson

3 E Kalman

4 A Muldowney

5 T Ryder

6 J Eddie

7 C Forrester

8 R Wilson

Subs

P MacArthur, G Reid, K Tkachuk, R Harley, J Beattie, H Pyrgos, A Dunbar, B Stortoni.