Cardiff Blues 10 - 26 Celtic Warriors

By Dai
December 27 2003

THe Warriors came away from the Arms Park with a vital away victory under their belts before their continue their challening in this seasons Heineken Cup against London Wasps. For a match report, analysis and score summary read on.

Cardiff Blues 10 - 26 Celtic Warriors

    A 5000 strong crowd gathered at the Arms Park to watch the Warriors outscore the Blues by four tries to one in a largely one sided contest. The Warriors looked the sharper in the early stages and were rewarded with a try by skipper Gareth Thomas in the opening quarter. A good catch at the back of the lineout allowed debutant scrum half Gareth Cooper to feed the ball the Thomas who brushed aside the tackles of Craig Morgan and Nicky Robinson to score near the posts. Ceri Sweeney added the simple conversion to put the Warriors into a 7 - 0 lead. 

    The Blues then came to life and made a rare attack into the Warriors 22. A number of offences by the Warriors presented the Blues with a penalty attempt which they chose to run near the Warriors line. The ball was thrown out to the backs but Cory Harris dived straight on top of the player and earned himself 10 minutes in the sin bin. The resulting penalty in front of the posts was kicked by Iestyn Harris to reduce the Warriors lead to 7 - 3.

    However, the score didn't stay close for long as an attacking scrum for the Warriors resulted in the the ball being shipped out to Ceri Sweeney who put in a chip kick for Gareth Wyatt to chase. An awkward bounce of the ball left Matt Allen in trouble and Sweeney was able to re-gather the ball and score under the sticks. His second conversion attempt was successful and opened up an 11 point gap for the Warriors.

    Further attacking opportunities followed for the Warriors in the first half with Mamma Molitika looking inside rather than outside as he looked to offload the ball near the tryline and then Gareth Thomas failing to spot Ceri Sweeney on his inside as he was brought down inches short of the tryline although no-one could complain about a lead of 14 points to 3 at half time.

    The second half started in a similar fashion to the first with the Warriors controlling the game and forcing the Blues into mistakes when they got hands on the ball. An attack into the Blues 22 allowed Gareth Thomas to brush of the tackle of Rhys Williams and sprint for the corner for the Warriors third try which was splendidly converted by Sweeney from out wide and then moments later an attacking move from Gareth Cooper created an opportunity for the Warriors backs near the Blues try line. The ball was passed out to Thomas and then at first he looked to have put Sonny Parker in trouble as he gave the ball to him despite Parker having two of the opposition  players in front of him. Luckily, Parker was able to offload in the tackle to Kevin Morgan who then returned the ball to Thomas to score his third try of the game. Sweeney was unable to add the extras but at 26 - 3 the game was practically won.

    Towards the end both teams began to lose their shape although the Warriors could have extended their lead after Sweeney cleverly chipped over the defending player, caught the ball and offloaded to Parker who headed for the line but was caught by Tom Shanklin before he was able to pass the ball out to the advancing Gareth Thomas. Overall the match was dominated by the Warriors but the Blues were able to score a consolation try through Dan McShane from a catch and drive at the lineout. Iestyn Harrirs made one of his sole contributions to the game by adding the conversion but it was too little to late as the Warriors came away from the Arms Park with a 26 - 10 victory.

The Positives

This was a far more convincing Warriors performance with the players playing  more like a team rather than a group of individuals. The forwards did not allow the Blues to have any time on the ball which nullified any potential threats early on and the backs looked sharp when they got the ball.

The Negatives

There was still some moments of indiscipline from the Warriors which let the Blues off the hook at times but generally the performance was good.

Overall Comments

A good performance by the Warriors but we should not get too carried away as the Blues were poor on the night. Our next match is away to London Wasps and we will have to step up another gear if we are to beat them on their own patch although we are definitely heading in the right direction.

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Warriors Scorers

Ceri Sweeney (1 try, 3 cons); Gareth Thomas (3 tries)

Blues Scorers

Dan McShane (1 try); Iestyn Harris (1 pen, 1 con)

 

Warriors Starting XV: Kevin Morgan; Dafydd James, Gareth Thomas, Sonny Parker, Gareth Wyatt; Ceri Sweeney, Gareth Cooper; Christian Loader, Mefin Davies, Gethin Jenkins, Brent Cockbain, Deiniol Jones, Mamma Molitika, Cory Harris, Richard Parks.
Replacements: Matthew Rees, Geraint Morris, Grant Harrington, Nick Kelly, Sililo Martens, Neil Jenkins, Richard Bryan.

 

Blues Starting XV: Nick Robinson; Rhys Williams, Tom Shanklin, Matt Allen, Craig Morgan; Iestyn Harris, Andrew Moore; John Yapp, Gareth Williams, Darren Crompton, Heino Senekal, Andy Moore, Jim Brownrigg, Martyn Williams (capt), Nathan Thomas.
Replacements: Kenneth Fourie, Ben Evans, Rhys Thomas, Craig Quinnell, Dan McShane, Ryan Powell, Nick Walne.

 

Referee: Nigel Williams