Lyon 21-30 Cardiff Blues: Inspired Blues fight back to beat Lyon
Last Updated: 14/10/18 4:17pm
Cardiff Blues hold their nerve to fight back and beat Lyon 30-21 in Pool 3 of the Heineken Champions Cup.
Lyon's debut in the tournament got off to a flying start as they sought revenge for their double defeat to the Blues, as the Welsh side went all the way to win the Challenge Cup for the second time last season.
The French outfit dominated from the start and excellent early defence from Tomos Williams held up a shove over the line to prevent a certain try for Loann Goujon.
But, the home No 8 was not going to be denied. Having been held up from a line-out, he then picked up from the back of a five-metre scrum and powered over on the blindside to open the scoring in the fifth minute.
There was a hint of a knock-on as he picked up the ball at the base, however referee JP Doyle consulted his TMO David Grashoff and the score was given.
Lionel Beauxis nailed the touchline conversion and then added a penalty to give the home side a 10-0 lead.
The Blues were rattled, but they stuck to their guns and worked their way back into the game with some brave attacking play.
Scrum-half Williams raced clear into the 22, but his return pass to Willis Haloholo was not accurate enough to allow the centre to finish off the move.
The Blues camped in the home 22, without any success, but they finally opened their account after half-an-hour.
Lyon had cleared to half-way, but from the line-out Williams dummied his way past the first line of defence after receiving possession off the top from Olly Robinson. The scrum-half raced 25 metres before releasing Robinson for a sprint to the line.
Gareth Anscombe added the conversion and from the restart the Blues conjured up a second try.
They failed to take possession back off the kick-off and Lyon drove up to the 22. Then, Jean-Marc Doussain took too much time in delivering his pass to Beauxis and the Blues' skipper Ellis Jenkins nipped in to steal an intercept.
The flanker pinned back his ears, raced up to the home 22 before handing on to Williams, who turned final defender inside out before scoring in the right corner. Anscombe added the extras from the touchline.
Having been behind for 20 minutes, suddenly the Blues were ahead, although, by the break the big boot of Beauxis had edged the home side back in front as he kicked two long-range penalties to punish scrum offences.
Anscombe replied with two penalties of his own in the opening eight minutes of the second half and duly steered his side back into the lead.
The Wales star, playing at full-back, then cut clean through from inside his own half to score a wonder try that he also converted. The conversion stretched their lead out to 11 points.
With 90 seconds to play Lyon scored a try through Quentin Delord which looked to have secured a losing bonus-point. But, a Jenkins turnover produced a penalty for the visitors in front of the posts.
Anscombe nailed it to deny Lyon anything from the match and it meant that he finished his afternoon's work with a tally of 20 points.
