Blues grab the bonus

Cardiff scored 31 unanswered points to seal a 34-18 bonus-point victory over Bristol, Wales flanker Martyn Williams scoring two tries in an impressive start to the Blues' Heineken Cup campaign.

The hosts deserved the victory for their more expansive rugby and better handling moves, although until the final quarter it looked as if Bristol's forward power and well-organised defence would guide the Premiership side to a vital away win in a difficult Pool.

It took prop Darren Crompton's sin-binning on the hour to give Cardiff the space to finally convert their attacking moves into tries and two quickfire scores killed off Bristol's challenge.

Return

Bristol had made an impressive return to the European big time after a four-year absence, building a 10-point lead in the first quarter, although they were helped by two marginal forward pass calls that ruled out Cardiff tries for Gareth Thomas and Tom Shanklin.

Jason Strange and Ben Blair exchanged early penalties before Bristol claimed the first try after 20 minutes. Cardiff turned the ball over in midfield and Shaun Perry's quick pass sent Tom Arscott streaking away down the right.

The 20-year-old winger had plenty to do, but chipped cleverly over the top and flicked the ball back for David Hill to collect and score.

Strange kicked another penalty to stretch the lead to 10 points and Bristol should have taken that into the break, only for a costly injury-time error from veteran England hooker Mark Regan.

Time had almost expired but his lineout throw was not straight and from the scrum David Flanagan chipped over the top and Jamie Robinson collected to score by the posts.

That changed the momentum of the game, and after Strange missed a simple penalty and Blair slotted one over, the scores were quickly level after the break.

Verve

Cardiff continued to attack with verve but were turning the ball over too often against an obdurate Bristol defence. It took Crompton's yellow for a second high hit to open up the game and the Blues took full advantage.

The ball was spread wide on 66 minutes and Maam Molitika burrowed over from the ensuing ruck and four minutes later Williams took advantage of more gaps in the Bristol defence, dummying over with a four-on-one overlap.

Crompton returned, but with a 14-point lead a confident Cardiff were determined to go for the bonus point. It arrived when Shanklin's pass sent Williams bursting over from 15 yards out.

The impressive Arscott did cross for an injury-time consolation but it is Cardiff who are five points on their way to a first trip to the knock-out stages.