Cardiff 23-19 Glasgow: Blues maintain winning start to PRO12 season
Last Updated: 16/09/16 9:56pm
Cardiff Blues continued their winning start to the Guinness PRO12 season with a 23-19 victory over Glasgow in a hard-fought clash at Cardiff Arms Park.
Glasgow outscored their opponents by three tries to two, but two penalties from Gareth Anscombe and one from replacement Steve Shingler secured Cardiff's first league win against the Scots in 11 meetings and their third successive victory this season.
Alex Cuthbert and Rey Lee-Lo scored Cardiff's tries with Peter Horne, Stuart Hogg and Ali Price all crossing for Glasgow and Rory Clegg adding two conversions.
Blues dominated the opening quarter and were rewarded with two simple penalties from Anscombe as the visitors made a number of unforced errors.
Outside half Clegg was particularly at fault with some inaccurate kicking and careless passing as Glasgow struggled to get a foothold into the game.
The first quarter was stop-start and it was not until Matthew Morgan's thrilling run that the crowd had something to enthuse about. The full back beat a couple of defenders on a 50-metre run, before kicking ahead to secure the
hosts a five-metre scrum.
And from the scrum, the Blues were able to capitalise when Cuthbert finished off a planned move for the opening try, which Anscombe converted.
After 26 minutes, on their first excursion into the Blues 22, Glasgow produced an excellent move of their own, which saw Hogg score and Clegg convert.
That was the impetus the Warriors needed and within seven minutes Horne had scored their second, which was converted by Clegg to turn the game on its head.
Blues suffered a further blow when Cuthbert limped off, but another ill-judged kick from Clegg gave away possession for Cardiff to take advantage with a try from Lee-Lo, which Anscombe converted for a 20-14 interval lead.
Nine minutes after the restart, Glasgow reduced the deficit when Price forced his way over from close range.
In a free-flowing game both sides missed gilt-edged chances due to poor passing so Cardiff still held a one-point lead going into the final 11 minutes.
At that stage, the hosts lost Anscombe with a nasty cut following a clash of heads but despite strong pressure from Glasgow, some excellent defence and a late penalty from Shingler secured Blues victory.
