Ospreys 46-24 Cardiff Blues: Eli Walker scores two tries for hosts
By PA Sport
Last Updated: 07/10/16 10:33pm
Wing Eli Walker scored two tries as Ospreys defeated Cardiff Blues 46-24 in the Guinness PRO12 Welsh derby at the Liberty Stadium.
Ospreys moved into second place in the table as they went in for a total of seven tries to earn a valuable bonus point.
Alun Wyn Jones, Dmitri Arhip, Ben John, Dan Evans and Josh Matavesi also went over for Ospreys, with fly-half Sam Davies adding nine points with the boot.
Kristian Dacey, Tom James and Rey Lee-Lo scored the Cardiff tries, with Gareth Anscombe kicking nine points.
Ospreys went into the break with a 27-10 lead and the try bonus point but it was the Blues who started the better of the two sides.
After Anscombe and Sam Davies swapped penalties, Blues went over for the opening try from Dacey thanks to a dominant drive from a line-out.
But the key moment of the contest came when Cardiff full-back Dan Fish was sin-binned on 21 minutes for holding back Sam Davies without the ball and down to 14 men, the Blues conceded three tries in nine minutes.
First, the Ospreys went for the try rather than a kick at goal following the Fish yellow card and were rewarded when captain Jones dotted down for Sam Davies to convert.
With Josh Turnbull lucky not to become the second Blues player to get a yellow card for being deliberately offside, Ospreys were on the front foot again with Sam Davies putting Walker over for the second try.
And Walker crossed again less than three minutes later, going over in the left corner after a break by Matavesi. Sam Davies converted to make it 22-10 after 31 minutes.
Just before the interval in-form prop Arhip crashed over for the bonus-point try which was converted by Sam Davies.
Blues made their intent known at half-time by bringing on Matthew Morgan and Steve Shingler but then conceded a try in the opening 30 seconds of the second period when centre John went over after the visitors failed to secure the kick-off. Sam Davies converted.
With the Blues shell-shocked, Ospreys claimed a sixth try when Ashley Beck put Evans in to give the home side a 39-10 advantage.
Blues managed to get their second try through wing James just after the hour mark after he ran in from 60m after picking up a loose ball.
But Ospreys hit back three minutes later with a seventh try scored by Matavesi, converted by Dan Biggar, and five minutes from time, Lee-Lo went over in the right corner for Blues' third try to complete the scoring.
