Cardiff Blues forced to dig deep to overcome Treviso in the RaboDirect PRO12

Robert Barbieri: Scored two tries but was sin-binned

Jamie Roberts: Crossed for a first-half try for Cardiff Blues

Cardiff Blues recorded a nervy 34-18 victory over Treviso to climb the RaboDirect PRO12 standings.

The Blues were rarely troubled in the first half by the Italian visitors as they built up a comfortable 17-3 lead.

However Treviso were rewarded for their endeavour after the break to give themselves a chance of an upset.

Cardiff, though, managed to snuff out the threat and the victory means that Phil Davies' side climb up to third in the table, with regional rivals the Scarlets currently leading the way.

Dan Fish, Jamie Roberts, Jason Tovey and Campese Ma'afu scored tries to clinch the bonus point, while Rhys Patchell added 14 points with the boot - although the margin of victory could have been more if the fly-half hadn't missed a couple of penalty chances, while Bradley Davies was yellow-carded late on.

Treviso replied through the boot of Italy No.10 Kristopher Burton (eight points) and two tries from Robert Barbieri.

However they were rocked by injury to Edoardo Gori after just 10 minutes, while No.8 Barbieri was sin-binned shortly after the interval.

Made amends

Having been wayward with his first effort of the match, Patchell opened the scoring with a 10th-minute penalty.

Patchell was on target again with the extras after Dan Fish had powered over before Treviso finally got off the mark with a Burton penalty.

Patchell was off-target with a penalty but he made no mistake after Wales centre Roberts had scored the second try of the match.

Patchell added to his tally three minutes after the break, with Treviso made pay after Italy international Barbieri had been sin-binned.

Treviso, to their credit, defended resolutely to frustrate the hosts - and Barbieri made amends when he dived over after 56 minutes.

Burton converted and then added a penalty to cut the deficit to seven points with 14 minutes left.

The Blues, though, though they had the game out of sight through Tovey's 68th minute try, with Patchell adding the conversion

However a yellow card to Davies opened the door for the Italians to stage a late rally.

Barbieri scored his second try of the match to set the nerves jangling, although Burton off-target with his conversion attempt.

The Blues, though, were able to close out the game when Ma'afu scored late on to clinch the bonus point with Patchell slotting over the extras.

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