Blues go third after win
Cardiff Blues moved up to third place in the Magners League standings with a 29-9 win over Treviso.
Last Updated: 21/04/11 9:41pm
Cardiff Blues moved up to third place in the Magners League standings with a 29-9 win over Treviso.
The Blues edged closer to a place in the play-offs thanks to a penalty try and a try from number eight Xavier Rush, plus 19 points from fly-half Dan Parks.
A bonus-point victory with a winning a margin of at least 18 points would have seen the Blues leapfrog Leinster into second place.
But a resilient Teviso, who defended bravely throughout, denied them the four tries they needed and the Italian side were rewarded with three penalties from fly-half Willem De Waal.
De Waal opened the scoring early on with a penalty before Parks levelled for Cardiff with one of his own. The hosts' stand-off then converted two more opportunities to take the score out to 9-3 after 10 minutes.
However, the Blues were lethargic throughout the first period and a mistake by Martyn Williams allowed De Waal to reduce the arrears. Italian international flanker Alessandro Zanni was then sin-binned for the visitors and Parks kicked the resultant penalty.
Down to 14 men and under pressure at the scrum, substitute prop Michele Rizzo was also yellow-carded to leave Treviso briefly with 13 men on the field. And Cardiff took advantage when referee Neil Paterson awarded a penalty try, before De Waal scored another penalty to leave Cardiff 19-9 up at the break.
The Blues looked to increase the tempo in the second half and were duly rewarded when Parks slotted his fifth penalty after 51 minutes.
Rush went over from a driving maul late on and substitute Robert Barbieri became the third Treviso player to be sin-binned to help ease Cardiff to victory, but the hosts could not force any more tries.
