Blues destroy Calvisano

Cardiff ran in eight tries as they hammered Calvisano 56-20 at the Centre Sportivo San Michele.

The Blues were leading 18-13 at half-time despite dominating for long spells of the first-half.

Dai Young's side showed the gulf in class in the second period as a ten-minute blitz straight after the interval effectively ended the match as a contest.

Ben Blair scored 23 points, including six conversions and two penalties, as the visitors eased home to open their Heineken Cup campaign with a thumping victory.

Cardiff opened the scoring on nine minutes thanks to Ma'ama Molitika as the Calvisano defence was stretched wide open and the big Tongan went over.

Physical exchanges

The early exchanges were as physical as expected, highlighted by a spear tackle from Tom Shanklin and the Blues were then reduced to 14 men when Deiniol Jones was harshly sin binned for a high tackle.

Gerard Fraser slotted over the penalty to reduce the score to 5-3 but Luke McLean slapped the ball into touch as Gareth Thomas closed in on the corner, allowing Ben Blair to extend the Blues' lead to five points.

Cardiff were then awarded a penalty try on 24 minutes as Jamie Robinson was taken out by Alessandro Zanni following a clever grubber kick.

The home side dug in deep as the expected onslaught from Cardiff never materialised, and they then suddenly scored a converted try themselves out of nothing.

Justin Purll broke away from the ruck and touched down under the posts, pegging the score back to within five. Jamie Robinson was shown a yellow card in the aftermath of the score and would rejoin the game just before half-time.

Blair and Paul Griffen, who had taken over kicking duties from the injured Fraser, then swapped penalties as Calvisano were growing in belief that they could get something out of the game as the first period ended.

The visitors soon extinguished those hopes with a points blitz which the home side couldn't deal with, starting with scrum-half Jason Spice scoring two minutes in, collecting Rhys Thomas line-out ball and running home.

Thomas then found a gap and offloaded the ball to Tom Shanklin, who went over and got the bonus point the Blues were looking for.

Slick passing

On 50 minutes Ben Blair scored following some slick passing play, with the New Zealander sidestepping the hapless Luke McLean before kicking the subsequent conversion to make the score 13-39.

A free-flowing move which started in their own half saw the Blues score their sixth try of the afternoon.

The forwards overturned the ball and it eventually found itself out wide to Shanklin, who showed great hands before Nicky Robinson went over after good work by Lee Halfpenny and Martyn Williams.

The home fans did have something to cheer about on 62 minutes when Leonardo Ghiraldini touched down after exploiting the space on the nearside, but their joy was short lived when Halfpenny scored an easy try to bring up the visitors half-century minutes later.

A shocking mistake let in Gareth Thomas for the eighth on 68 minutes as the Blues ran out easy winners in a one-sided Pool Six fixture.