Cardiff Blues defeated Worcester Warriors 41-19 at Cardiff Arms Park, scoring seven tries, in the opening friendly of the 2006/7 season.
DATE 19/08/06
CARDIFF BLUES 41 v WORCESTER WARRIORS 19
SATURDAY 19 AUGUST 3.00PM KICK OFF
After months of waiting rugby returned to the Arms Park and within the first two minutes Mark Stcherbina had broken through the Worcester defence and passed the ball to new signing Mosese Luveitasau. The Fijian winger showed a glimpse of what was to come as he rounded his man showing great pace but was tackled just short of the line. The ball eventually moved to the other side and Stcherbina was unlucky not to get on the scoreboard after failing to ground the ball having crossed the tryline. The score soon came as Mike Phillips took a quick penalty and Deiniol Jones touched down for first try of the season. The next try came two minutes later as Rhys Williams threw a dummy before passing to Brad Davies to power over and score another try for the Second Rowers. Dafydd Hewitt came on in place of Jamie Robinson who left the filed with a minor groin injury and the young centre looked strong in defence and despite Worcester pressure the visitors failed to break through the Cardiff defence. Cardiff Blues were dominant and the centres were working well as Stcherbina once again broke and passed to Tom Riley on the wing who passed back inside to Daf Hewitt to score in the corner. The Blues extended their lead just before the break as Captain Xavier Rush stormed over following a quickly taken penalty.
HALF TIME Cardiff Blues 24 Worcester Warriors 0
A number of substitutions at half time by Cardiff Blues saw the introduction of Rob Sidoli, Wayne Evans and new signing Taufaao Felise. Cardiff Arms Park also welcomed an old favourite to the pitch as Worcester brought on Ryan Powell from the bench. The Warriors soon increased the tempo and in the 49th minute they got their reward following close passing around the rucks and
Tevita Taumoepeau crossed for a try. The Blues soon struck back following good work from Martyn Williams who was having an excellent match. The Flanker managed to get the ball out to Rhys Williams who had taken a clever angle to receive the pass and sprint in for the 5th try converted by Macleod. Worcester soon scored again with some good passing in the backs enabling centre Thomas Lombard to tough down. It was the visitors to scored the next try also as the Blues broke in to the Worcester half the ball emerged on the Worcester side and substitute Chris Pennell sprinted half the length of the filed to score. The Blues fought back and a stong run by Rob Sidoli saw the ball go out to Rhys Williams and his pass to Luveitasau saw the Fijian once again sprint round his man, he still had a lot to do but managed to crash over in the corner with two men on his back. The final score came in injury time as some neat inter passing between Mosese Luveitasau and Tom Riley saw the ball emerge for Martyn Williams to score a try which was a fitting end to an entertaining game.
CARDIFF BLUES
15 Rhys Williams, 14 Tom Riley, 13 Jamie Robinson, 12 Marc Stcherbina
11 Mosese Luveitasau, 10 Nick Macleod, 9 Mike Phillips, 8 Xavier Rush (C)
7 Martyn Williams, 6 Scott Morgan, 5 Deiniol Jones, 4 Bradley Davies, 3 Gary Powell, 2 T Rhys Thomas, 1 Gethin Jenkins
Replacements 16 Taufaao Filise, 17 Gareth Williams, 18 Robert Sidoli, 19 Mark Lewis, 20 Andy Powell, 21 Wayne Evans, 22 Dai Flanagan, 23 Darren Allinson, 24 Dafydd Hewitt
WORCESTER WARRIORS
15. Thinus DELPORT, 14.Uche ODUOZA , 13. Miguel AVRAMOVIC, 12. Thomas LOMBARD, 11. Marcel GARVEY, 10. James BROWN, 9. Matt POWELL, 8. Kai HORSTMANN (C), 7.James COLLINS, 6. Gavin QUINNELL, 5. Craig GILLIES, 4 Phil MURPHY, 3.Tevita TAUMOEPEAU
2. Ben GOTTING, 1. Lee FORTEY
Replacements 16. Darren MORRIS, 17. Chris FORTEY, 18. Tim COLLIER
19. Will BOWLEY, 20. Craig EVERETT, 21. Tom Harding, 22. Ryan Powell
23. Shane DRAHM, 24. Simon WHATLING, 25. Gary TRUEMAN, 26. Chris Pennell