RaboDirect Pro 12: Cardiff Blues secure bonus-point victory at Edinburgh

The Blues' rising star produced a noteworthy performance with a man of the match display over their Scottish opponents at Meggetland.

Matt Scott crossed to put Edinburgh into an early lead but Allen hit back for the visitors before Filo Paulo and Dan Fish tries further increased Cardiff's lead.

The hosts hit back through Tom Brown to set up a tense finale but Dafydd Hewitt eased Blues' jitters with a fourth, bonus-point-clinching try, before Cornell de Preez reduced Edinburgh's arrears late on.

Defeat for Edinburgh all but ends their hopes of forcing their way into the top six and a possible place in next season's European Cup, with six points separating them from sixth-placed Scarlets after 18 matches.

Victory for Cardiff, meanwhile, is their second in succession to continue their bright end to what has otherwise been a poor campaign. The Blues are now up to ninth place, two points behind Edinburgh.

Sloppy start

Playing their second successive game at the home of Boroughmuir, due to the ongoing replacement of the Murrayfield pitch, Edinburgh made a sloppy start yet found themselves 10-3 ahead in the 11th minute.

Twice Edinburgh made a mess of receiving kick-offs, the first time allowing Cardiff to put on pressure that ended with a penalty kicked by Gareth Davies.

Edinburgh were able to equalise through Jack Cuthbert after Cardiff gave away a silly penalty at the re-start reception for dangerous play.

Then, following a line-out maul on the visitors' 22, a nice short pass from stand off Harry Leonard let centre Scott break a tackle to touch down by the posts, with Cuthbert converting.

In the 18th minute Cardiff drew level. A thrust by Kristian Dacey in centre was followed by swift ball transference to the right where centre Allen ran in the try converted by Davies.

The second quarter was marked by Cardiff taking the ball forward on the dry surface and the reward of a second try arrived seven minutes from the break.

From a quickly taken line out, the Blues besieged the home line.

A kickable penalty was put to the corner, to be rewarded by the line out driving over with lock Paulo getting the plaudits for the try, converted from far out by Davies.

It looked bad for the hosts when Cardiff ran in their third try, through full-back Fish, within 90 seconds of the restart and Davies converted from touch.

Edinburgh fightback

However Edinburgh raised their game and, following a couple of drives from David Denton, wing Brown got over in the corner, with Cuthbert adding the conversion to cut the Blues' lead to 24-17.

This fightback took the wind out of Cardiff's sails for a time, however early in the final quarter they trapped Edinburgh in their own half.

Following a long line out drive, the fourth try seemed on until Cuthbert dropped Fish's pass close to the home line.

Cuthbert sinned again seven minutes from the end, losing the ball in the tackle metres from the home line following a slicing run.

But, at last, the try bonus arrived with a clever pass from Allan leaving it to substitute Hewitt to drop over the line for the unconverted try.

There was just time left for a consolation unconverted try to Edinburgh, scored by flanker Du Preez.