Montpellier 34 Cardiff Blues 21
Saturday 15 December 2012
Cardiff Blues were forced into two late changes, with the sad news that Robert Reed, Lou Reed’s father, had passed away in the morning. Marc Breeze also pulled out with an injured neck. Macauley Cook started in the second row with Luke Hamilton moving onto the bench and was joined by Kristian Dacey who replaced Breeze.
Montpellier started brightly looking to run from their own twenty two, but Patchell was again controlling well, kicking to the corners to keep them pinned back. Montpellier overthrew the lineout and Warburton pounced for the first try within five minutes.
Mayano and Patchell exchanged penalties before Montpellier looked to have equalized.
A good break by Galetier saw Montpellier force their way into the Blues twenty-two, before some slick hands by Carraro and Mayano put Nagusa in at the corner. However the TMO didn’t award the try.
Montpellier again attacked but the Blues were putting in some solid tackles to keep them out before finally Nagusa showed his pace and strength to power over. Moyano converted to put the home side ahead.
Montpellier were looking dangerous with some great offloading in the tackles stretching the Blues defence and eventually Van Vurren powered over from a ruck to extend their lead further.
The Blues were also looking dangerous in patches but some careless hands was costing them, with knock-ons spoiling some promising positions, but the Blues were still in it at the break.
Half time Montpellier 17 Cardiff Blues 8
It didn’t take Montpellier long to get on the scoreboard in the second half. After a sustained period of pressure Yoan Audrin crossed over from short range and Moyano converted.
The Blues looked to have struck back instantly. Montpellier ran from their own twenty-two and as they kicked ahead it bounced into the hands of Tovey, who chipped ahead and looked to have touched down, only for the TMO not to award the try.
The Blues did hit back when Harry Robinson did well to gather a Montpellier kick and counter attack before recycling the ball. When it came right, Cuthbert showed great pace to break through the defence to score, with Patchell converting
Despite the score Montpellier always looked in control and their fourth try came from John Beattie, who broke through some lax tackling, to storm his way over with Moyano again converting to give the Frenchmen a 16 point cushion.
Patchell slotted two more penalties for the Blues before Moyano got one for the Frenchmen to secure a 34-21 win.
Cardiff Blues 15. Jason Tovey 14.Alex Cuthbert (73off) 13. Gavin Evans 12. Dafydd Hewitt (66off) 11. Harry Robinson 10. Rhys Patchell 9. Lewis Jones (73off)
8 Andries Pretorius (c) 7. Sam Warburton 6. Josh Navidi (73off) 5. James Down 4. Macauley Cook (62off) 3. Benoit Bourrust (54off) 2. Rhys Williams (73off) 1. Taufa’ao Filise (54off)
16. Kristian Dacey (73on) 17. Sam Hobbs (54on) 18. Scott Andrews (54on) 19. Luke Hamilton (73on) 20. Robin Copeland (62on) 21. Robert Lewis (73on) 22. Gareth Davies (66on) 23. Owen Williams (73on)
Montpellier: 15 Martin Bustos Moyano 14 Timoci Nagusa 13 Matthew Carraro 12 Paul Bosch 11 Yoan Audrin 10 Santiago Fernandez 9 Julien Tomas (c)
1 Yvan Watremez 2 Erasmus Van Vuuren 3 Juan Figallo 4 Mickael De Marco 5 Aliki Fakate 6 Alexandre Bias 7 Kelian Galletier 8 John Beattie
16 Mickael Ladhuie 17 Naama Leleimalefaga 18 Barry Fa'amausili 19 Thibault Privat 20 Fulgence Ouedraogo 21 Eric Escande 22 Shontayne Hape 23 Benjamin Thiery
Pen Patchell x 3
Tries Warburton x 1 Cuthbert x 1
Con Patchell x 1
D/G
Pen Mayano x 1
Tries Nagusa x 1 Van Vurren x 1 Audrin x 1 Beattie x 1
Con Mayano x 4
D/G
Attendance 11,209
Yellow Cards