Blues cruise to Cup glory

Cardiff Blues ended a nine-year trophy drought with a crushing 50-12 victory over Gloucester in the final of the EDF Energy Cup at Twickenham.

Full-back Ben Blair claimed a 25-point haul as Cardiff ran in seven tries to claim their first piece of silverware since winning the Welsh-Scottish league title back in 2000.

Cardiff flew out of the traps - Wales wing Leigh Halfpenny crossing twice in the opening 20 minutes - before Tom James struck to send Gloucester into the interval 22-5 behind.

The Cherry and Whites simply couldn't cope with the wave of Blue pressure and Blair sealed victory with two tries in the space of 10 second half minutes, before Ceri Sweeney and Tom Shanklin put the gloss on an emphatic win.

Sensational

Cardiff went into the Twickenham final - their first for 63 years - full of confidence following their Heineken Cup quarter-final victory over Toulouse and prop Taufa'ao Filise made was full of running in the early stages.

His break saw Halfpenny held up inches from the Gloucester line in the second minute, and, after another couple of phases of pressure Gloucester won a penalty which Blair dragged wide.

Gloucester responded though with an attack of their own, however Ryan Lamb missed his penalty chance as the nerves of the occasion clearly got to both kickers.

The opening try came on 11 minutes when a sensational team move was finished off by Halfpenny. Nicky Robinson, who is moving to Kingsholm in the summer, started the move before a deft interchange between Halfpenny and Richie Rees - on in place of Jason Spice - sliced open the Gloucester defence and the Wales international touched down.

Blair knocked over the extras and added a penalty moments later as the Blues stormed into a 10-0 lead with less than 20 minutes on the clock.

It was no surprise when Cardiff, and the electric Halfpenny, ran in their second try just a minute later after some neat offloads and a killer pass from Martyn Williams.

Ran riot

With the Gloucester defence at sixes and sevens, Williams switched the play to Wales team-mate Halfpenny who raced clear to put the Blues in total command.

The Cherry and Whites needed a response and they got one on the half hour when Mark Foster finished brilliantly after the ball was switched quickly from right to left.

With the first half coming to a close, Cardiff struck again. The impressive Filise made the initial break through the gain-line and as the ball made its way to James, he held off Lamb and managed to ground the ball in the corner.

Blair's missed conversion ensured Cardiff took a healthy 22-5 lead into half-time and from there on the Blues ran riot.

The next score was always going to prove decisive when the teams emerged from the changing rooms and Blair effectively sealed victory when he crossed in the 66th minute.

Robinson made the break and Blair was on hand to pick up the pieces and burst through the static Gloucester defence to score under the posts.

Cardiff piled on the misery just two minutes later when replacement Sweeney capitalised on more hesitancy in the Cherry and Whites defence to register Blues' fifth try of the afternoon.

Olly Barkley slammed over a consolation penalty try in the 73rd minute, but this was to be Cardiff's day and Blair and Tom Shanklin both crashed over in the dying stages to cap a memorable afternoon for Dai Young's men.