Cardiff Blues capitalise on penalties to bat Cheetahs

Cardiff Blues took advantage of some defensive ill-discipline from Cheetahs to secure a 30-17 win at the Arms Park.

The hosts led at the break after Jason Tovey’s two penalties, Aled Summerhill’s try and two further penalties from Jarrod Evans.

Cheetahs had gone in front after tries by Rhyno Smith and Clayton Blommetjies despite having prop Jasper Wiese sent off for dangerous play.

But Blues played safely in the second half as the numbers game proved key.

Scrum-half Lloyd Williams made his 200th Cardiff Blues appearance on a cold night in the Welsh capital.

Fly-half Tovey kicked Blues into an early lead and wing Summerhill added a well-worked try as the Blues looked to avoid being shocked like the Ospreys were earlier in the day.

Their cause was helped when Cheetahs lost Wiese to a red card after he shoulder-charged Tovey’s head at a breakdown.

Tovey kicked the penalty, but Cheetahs produced some scintillating play to lead through wings Smith and Blommetjies with Ruan Pienaar converting both as a shock temporarily seemed on the cards.

Evans switched from centre to fly-half after Tovey came off with suspected ankle damage and took over the kicking duties to level with a penalty.

Evans then put the hosts ahead after flanker Gerhard Olivier was sin-binned for kicking the ball away from an offside position.

Olivier’s absence meant Cheetahs starting the second half with 13 men and Blues pressed home their numerical advantage when Josh Turnbull crashed over with Evans adding the extras from a tricky angle.

Pienaar and Evans then swapped penalties to make the score 27-17, before another booming kick from Evans opened up a 13-point advantage that Blues defended well.

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Cardiff Blues: M Morgan; Millard, Lee-Lo, Evans, Summerhill; Tovey, Lloyd Williams (capt); Domachowski, Belcher, Andrews, Turnbull, Davies, Lewis-Hughes, Nick Williams.

Replacements: Myhill, Thyer, Assiratti, Cook, Lawrence, L Jones, Halaholo, Harries.

Cheetahs: Rhyno Smith; Clayton Blommetjies, William Small-Smith, Benhard Janse van Rensburg, Anthony Volmink; Tian Schoeman, Ruan Pienaar; Luan de Bruin, Joseph Dweba, Aranos Coetzee, Sintu Manjezi, Walt Steenkamp, Gerhard Olivier, Junior Pokomela, Jasper Wiese.

Replacements: Wilmar Arnoldi, Boan Venter, Erich de Jager, JP du Preez, Sias Koen, Tian Meyer, George Whitehead, Louis Fouche.

Referee: Ben Blain (SRU)

Assistant referees: Mike Adamson (SRU), Fin Brown (SRU)

TMO: Andrew McMenemy (SRU)

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