Blues keep Cup hopes alive

Cardiff kept their Heineken Cup hopes alive with a 36-19 victory over Sale in their Pool 5 clash at Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday.

18 points from the boot of Ben Blair, plus tries from Richie Rees, Bradley Davies and a stoppage time score by Xavier Rush, marked a commanding performance by the Blues.

Sale lacked composure for much of the match and Charlie Hodgson will be disappointed with an erratic performance at fly-half that offered only occasional glimpses of his tactical brilliance.

A strong start from Blues saw the hosts rewarded for early pressure with a penalty just inside the Sale 22.

Kiwi full-back Blair slotted between the sticks with a relatively straightforward effort to give his side a 3-0 lead after two minutes.

Sale's answer came within five minutes when number eight Sisa Koyamaibole pounced as the ball squirted out of the side of a scrum yards out from the Cardiff line.

The big Fijian shrugged off a weak tackle by the napping Andy Powell and leapt over the line to touch down for the first try of the game.

Hodgson could not hit the target from a tight angle on the left, leaving the score at 5-3 to the visitors.

Superb

Blair nosed his side back in front on the 20-minute mark with a fine penalty from 38 metres.

And nine minutes later Leigh Halfpenny made it 9-5 with a superb long-range kick from just inside the visitors' half.

Within five minutes Blair extended the hosts' lead to seven points with another long-range effort to take his tally to three from three.

In contrast Hodgson missed his second opportunity and a chance to cut the deficit going into the break when the Blues were pinged 41 metres out two minutes before half-time.

Cardiff stretched their lead to 19-5 soon after the restart thanks a great run from Halfpenny that saw him brought down five metres from the Sale line.

Rees finished the move, crossing in the right corner and Blair converted to add the extras.

Four minutes later and the hosts had their second when Tongan prop Tau Filise powered through the Sale defence before offloading to Davis who barged his way over.

Blair hit the target again with the extras to take the score to 26-5.

Blow

The Sharks bit back immediately thanks to the vision of fly-half Hodgson, who expertly lured in the Blues defence before flicking the ball up for lock James Gaskell.

Gaskell burst upfield and delivered a neat offload, putting Mathew Tait clear into space to sprint unopposed to the line for a 48th minute try.

Hodgson's kick took the score to 26-12 but within two minutes Blair had stretched the Blues lead again with his fifth penalty of the game.

On 55 minutes he struck again to open up a 17-point gap and with fifteen minutes to go Sale's hopes were dealt another blow when Martin Halsall was sent to the sin-bin.

Gaskell crossed in the corner for Sale on the 77-minute mark and Hodgson converted with a great touchline kick to take the score to 29-19.

But it was too little too late, although the 80th minute sin-binning of Blues flanker Martyn Williams offered the fleeting hope of a losing bonus point.

Any chance they had however, was dashed when Rush broke away to score under the posts with the last play of the game.

Blair made it seven from seven with his conversion to complete a comprehensive victory for Cardiff, who fell agonisingly short themselves of securing a crucial bonus point.