Cardiff Blues 11 - 19 Edinburgh

  • 5 October 2019

Edinburgh made it two wins from two as fourteen points from eventual Guinness Man of the Match, Jaco van der Walt, and a late try from Scotland international Mark Bennett secured an impressive win against Cardiff Blues at Cardiff Arms Park this evening.

The capital side led 8-9 at the break following a stodgy and slow opening 40 minutes of action, but they kicked it into another gear in the second period and eventually powered to claim the road win.

With the aforementioned Van der Walt purring in the No. 10 jersey and providing a platform for Edinburgh to perform, the win undoubtedly came through impressive solo performances from Nic Groom – who skippered the side, Duhan van der Merwe, Nick Haining and George Taylor.

Taylor – who started in the place of the injured Matt Scott – put in a terrific shift in midfield, both in attack and defence, and it was the young centre’s break that eventually set up a slick score for Bennett late in the match.

With Edinburgh starting well and playing with a real purpose and organisation, the opening points of the encounter came through Van der Walt. With Cardiff pinged at the breakdown, the stand-off stroked the ball home for the first points of the evening. [0-3]

With the hosts pushing forward in attach, Fraser McKenzie was sent to the bin for collapsing a maul on the Edinburgh try-line, and Cardiff would make the capital side pay.

Owen Lane was the man to finish a thunderous backline attack that saw the ball shifted across the backline at pace, before the winger was on hand to touch down in the corner. Jarrod Evans missed the resulting conversion. [5-3]

The capital side would once again take the lead through Van der Walt’s second penalty of the evening [5-6], before it was the run of Cardiff to have a man sent to the bin. Seb Davies was perhaps lucky to only see yellow as he tip-tackled Lewis Carmichael head over heels late in the second-half.

Van der Walt and Evans once again traded penalties following a frantic end to the opening 40 minutes and it was Edinburgh who led at the break. [8-9]

With both sides struggling to break down each other’s defence in the opening stages of the second-half, it was going to take a piece of magic to make the breakthrough.

Luckily for Edinburgh, they have a strike runner in Van der Merwe who has the ability to turn a game on its head and the winger’s ferocious running style continued to push the capital side forward in attack.

With Evans and Van der Walt continuing to be successful from the kicking tee – as both stand-offs traded penalties to make it 11-12, there was few and far between the two sides with less than ten minutes remaining in the encounter.

And with time running out, it was late replacement Taylor who broke through the onrushing Cardiff defence before offloading to Bennett who provided the coup de grace.

It was Bennett’s fourth try in just two games and it gave Edinburgh a second win of the season at Cardiff Arms Park. [11-19]

live commentary 5:15 PM Saturday 5 Oct 2019

{{ comment.matchTime }}

Kick-off 5:15 PM

Cardiff Blues

Edinburgh

Newsletter sign up

Sign up to our newsletter today to receive the latest updates from the club.

sign up