Gloucester bruised by Blues

Cardiff Blues took control of Pool Six in the Heineken Cup with a bonus-point 37-24 victory over Gloucester at the Millennium Stadium.

Leigh Halfpenny helped himself to two of the home side's four tries as they followed up their crushing of Calvisano with another impressive European win.

The Magners League side were helped out by a perfect kicking performance from Ben Blair, the full-back slotting over four conversions and three penalties.

While the Blues are cruising Gloucester will return across the Severn Bridge wondering just how they are heading home with nothing for their efforts.

Early deficit

They bounced back from an early 13-3 deficit to take the lead only to then crucially concede two soft tries right before the break.

To make matters worse they lost Ryan Lamb to injury, the talented number 10 limping off midway through the first half after engineering the fightback.

It was his long pass which cut out two Cardiff defenders to set up Olly Morgan's try, Olly Barkley adding the conversion to his earlier penalty.

As well as making it 13-10 in the Blues' favour, the full-back's score atoned for his earlier missed tackle that had allowed Halfpenny to go over after just three minutes.

Blair was, as he would be throughout the afternoon, on target with the wide conversion and then slotted over a penalty as the home team got off to a ferociously fast start.

However, Gloucester did not panic under the early onslaught and Morgan's effort was soon followed up by Iain Balshaw getting the first of his brace in the right corner.

The winger's try, created by Luke Narraway's well-timed pass to the blindside off the base of a scrum, came on the half hour and made it 17-13 - just 10 minutes later the Cherry and Whites had been picked off twice, meaning it was 27-17 at the interval.

Deadly double

Halfpenny snapped up a loose ball deep in his own half to gallop away under the posts and Gavin Thomas was almost immediately touching down in the same place following Blair's beautiful break down the middle from the re-start.

Asked to come back from a double-digit deficit for a second time, Gloucester worked their way to within three points with a converted effort from Balshaw.

The Blues, though, were not about to let history repeat itself and after an extended period of pressure Nicky Robinson dummied his way over from close range for a fourth home score.

When Olivier Azam was sin-binned with just over 10 minutes to play Gloucester knew the game was up, Blair putting the final nail in their coffin with the resulting penalty from in front of the sticks.