Blues dominant at Arms Park

Cardiff's quest for a Heineken Cup quarter final place took a step closer to reality with a deserved 23-12 win over Harlequins on Friday.

Harlequins are out of the tournament after they were outplayed at Cardiff Arms Park by a determined Blues' side focussed singularly on the last eight.

Cardiff piled on the pressure from the outset, bombarding Harlequins with a series of punishing attacks that made the eventual try seem all too inevitable when it came.

But the Quins defence acquitted itself well, making 75 tackles before half time and holding the rampaging Blues at bay for almost the entire first half before the score finally came.

The home side took the lead on 15 minutes with a penalty from Ben Blair. But it took until the 38th before they could add to their tally, thanks to the resolute defence of the visitors.

A line out near Quins 22 saw the ball whipped out to Dafydd Hewitt at centre who slashed through the Quins defence to score under the post. Blair added the extras to give the Blues a half time lead of 10-0.

Outclassed

The second half began with Quins trying hard to get back into the game and their efforts soon paid off.

Aussie fly half Chris Malone put some width on the ball, finding full back Mike Brown out on the right.

This time try scorer Hewitt, marking, turned from hero to villan as he missed the key tackle and allowed Brown to slip past and release the ball to Luscombe who crossed in the corner.

Harlequins suffered a major blow towards the end of the third quarter when referree Roman Poite penalised the visitors for persistent infringements and sent centre De Wet Barry to the sin bin.

Blair stepped up to make them pay, hitting a tremendous long range effort to stretch the home side's lead to nine points

Sloppy

Cardiff put the game out of reach eight minutes from the end after a short period of pressure close to the Quins line saw Shanklin driven over for the Blues' second try.

Blair was again on target to take the score to 23-7. But Cardiff, now chasing two tries to secure the bonus point, became sloppy and let the visitors in the closing stages.

An attack by Harlequins saw the ball spread wide for Mike Brown, provider for the first try, turn scorer and touch down in the corner.

But it was not enough for Quins and Cardiff now travel to Bristol knowing that a win will take them into the last eight.