Exiles slip past Blues

Lamb: Saved match for Irish

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A late penalty from replacement Ryan Lamb saw London Irish snatch their first LV=Cup victory with a slender 12-11 road win over Cardiff Blues.

The visitors were leading 6-3 at the break in the Cardiff City Stadium clash with Tom Homer and Peter Hewat taking a penalty apiece, with Ceri Sweeney replying for the Blues.

The second half saw Hewat and Sweeney exchange penalties before scrum-half Richie Rees scored a breakaway try to put the home team in an 11-9 lead, but Lamb kicked a penalty with just five minutes left on the clock to secure the win.

Sweeney even had a late chance to snatch the points but failed to respond when he missed a long-range penalty in stoppage time.

Cardiff made a promising start, with Sweeney producing several slick inside passes and a well-weighted cross-kick for wing Richard Mustoe, but the Exiles opened the scoring with a long-range penalty from Homer.

The hosts' attempt to fight back was cut short when hooker Williams knocked on a pass from lock Deiniol Jones, but Sweeney levelled the scores with a penalty when Irish failed to roll away.

Dangerous

The Blues continued to look more dangerous but Irish managed a meaningful effort just past the half hour mark as captain Richards burst through the Blues defence before the ball was picked up by Steffon Armitage, but the flanker ignored a three-man overlap and the chance slipped away.

The attack boosted the Exiles and Hewat blasted a penalty from just short of the halfway line to send the visitors into the break with a 6-3 lead.

Hewat extended the advantage just moments into the second half, knocking over another long-range penalty, but Irish failed to secure what might have been the opening try seconds later when prop Clarke Dermody spilled the ball with wing John Rudd free outside him.

A second penalty from Sweeney narrowed the lead to three points and the Blues pulled in front for the first time soon after when lock Jones capitalised on a loose pass from Irish fly-half Chris Malone and fed to Sweeney.

Sweeney found scrum-half Rees, who still had 40 metres to go but evaded the cover to score an unconverted try, confirmed by the video official.

Irish were struggling to break down Cardiff's solid defence, even when Malone was replaced by player-coach Mike Catt and Lamb came on for Jonathan Joseph.

But when Cardiff prop Taufa'ao Filise was penalised Lamb fired home a 35-metre penalty to snatch victory and Sweeney blew a final chance to respond when his last-gasp penalty went wide.