LV= Cup: Cardiff Blues pleased after fight; Scarlets draw positives
Last Updated: 14/11/14 10:38pm
Cardiff Blues academy manager Richard Hodges hailed the hard-fought nature of their 19-13 LV= Cup victory over the Scarlets, but admits his side must work on their accuracy.
A try from captain Ellis Jenkins helped the Blues to a second straight win in the tournament and put them in a strong position to progress.
Simon Humberstone kicked 11 points and Will Thomas added the other three, while Scarlets could only muster one try from Sion Bennett and eight points via the boot of Josh Lewis.
"We dug it out," Hodges said. "That's two wins out of two and we're in contention in the competition.
"But we were inaccurate with the ball in the first half. We'd go through a couple of phases and then turn it over.
"More than half our players were appearing at the Arms Park for the first time and there were bound to be nerves, but we sorted it out and closed the game out well."
Hodges gave much of the credit for that to skipper and try-scorer Jenkins.
"He was immense," Hodges reflected. "I think if you'd asked the crowd, 90 per cent of them would have had him as their man of the match."
Ioan Cunningham, LV= Cup coach for Scarlets, was pleased with the young talent in the side despite the defeat.
"After we took the lead with a try from a planned move, we needed to kick on and get another score," Cunningham said.
"But it never came. The Blues had a bit more experience up front and it showed at times, but what we saw tonight indicated that there is a lot of young talent at the region and the future is bright."
