No Welsh answer in Glasgow
Sat, 29 Nov 2008 01:41
Having beaten reigning champions Leinster last time out, Glasgow Warriors continued their progress as tries from Mark McMillan, Max Evans (2) and Lome Fa'atau helped them see off Cardiff and move up to second place in the Magners League standings.
Glasgow have now won six of their last seven Magners League games at Firhill and the result also means Cardiff remain winless away from home in this season's competition.
The Blues lost previously at the Ospreys and Munster and struggled to get to grips with Glasgow, clearly missing their Wales squad members Martyn Williams, Jamie Roberts, Tom Shanklin, Gethin Jenkins and Andy Powell and injured former All Black Xavier Rush.
Teenage winger Leigh Halfpenny was also rested after his recent international exertions.
And while the visitors benefited from the inclusion of Wales-capped flanker Robin Sowden-Taylor, this was really a night to forget for them.
Glasgow, for their part, welcomed back brothers Max and Thom Evans, Dan Parks and Dougie Hall from Scotland duty, while Bernardo Stortoni (Argentina) and Justin Va'a (Pacific Islanders) also resumed club action after being involved in autumn tours.
Forward trio Alastair Kellock, Kelly Brown and Johnnie Beattie missed out on featuring for Scotland in the November Tests and were clearly chomping at the bit to impress.
Indeed, a thumping, early challenge by Brown on Nicky Robinson meant the Cardiff number 10 had to be replaced.
This is the start of an important run of games for Sean Lineen's Warriors, who have to face Bath in back-to-back Heineken Cup clashes in the coming weeks as well as two David Lloyd 1872 Cup derbies against Edinburgh over the festive period.
After an early long range penalty miss from Parks, Cardiff threatened with a thrilling counter attack on 14 minutes.
Gareth Thomas led the charge and he gained serious ground before Jamie Robinson got on the ball. The Blues looked to have numbers on the left where Tom James was lurking, but Robinson lost his grip on the ball and Glasgow were let off the hook.
Cardiff kept the pressure on though and Thomas was just metres short of breaking the deadlock, after linking with Ceri Sweeney.
Glasgow's defence remained unbreached and the hosts managed to open the scoring in the 24th minute when Parks dinked a penalty over from just outside the 22.
A feature throughout was how the Warriors made the most of their chances and soon after that opening score, they heaped pressure on a Blues lineout.
And with ball squirming loose, scrum half Mark McMillan grabbed it to touch down ahead of a posse of defenders. Parks missed the conversion.
Territorially, Glasgow were getting on top and they were aided by Parks' ability to produce a good touch-finding kick when required.
Two minutes before half-time, the Scots stretched their lead to 13-0 when outside centre Max Evans beat two defenders to score from close range.
Both Lome Fa'atau and hooker Dougie Hall had gone close to scoring in previous phases, but Evans, who is in fine form at the moment, did not waste the opportunity.
The conversion from the touchline was missed by Parks but Glasgow kept their foot on the gas for the start of the second half and after a decent good work from the home pack, Parks landed his second successful penalty.
With 55 minutes on the clock, the game was as good as decided. Right on cue, Fa'atau burst through to score off a lovely grubber kick through from Andrew Henderson and credit must also go to Kelly Brown who regained possession for Glasgow after an up-and-under from Stortoni.
Despite bringing in some quality players from the bench, Cardiff offering little in attack.
It was left to Max Evans to sow up the home win - but not before his brother Thom went close to claiming the bonus point try himself.
Winger Thom, the league's top try scorer (5 tries), put too much meat on a kick as he dashed towards the Cardiff line and the ball went out over the end-line.
But Max, the man-of-the-match, was on hand in injury-time to put the seal on a result which sees the Blues remain winless in Glasgow since September 2005.
Speaking afterwards, Glasgow boss Lineen said: "It was a real team effort and, as I've said before, it all starts with the front five.
"A guy I'd like to single out is Tim Barker. He's worked very hard during the autumn international period and got over the gain-line every time tonight.
"Second in the league might be a little foreign to us, but Glasgow is an exciting place to be right now.
"The guys could now either get a bit dizzy or just say, 'right, we're on to something special here'."
Scorers:
For Glasgow:
Tries: McMillan, Evans 2, Fa'atau
Con: Parks
Pens: Parks 2
For Cardiff:
None
Teams:
Glasgow Warriors: 15 Bernardo Stortoni, 14 Lome Fa'atau, 13 Max Evans, 12 Andrew Henderson, 11 Thom Evans, 10 Dan Parks, 9 Mark McMillan, 8 Johnnie Beattie, 7 Kelly Brown, 6 Calum Forrester, 5 Alastair Kellock (captain), 4 Tim Barker, 3 Ed Kalman, 2 Dougie Hall, 1 Justin Va'a.
Replacements: 16 Eric Milligan, 17 Moray Low, 18 Dan Turner, 19 Richie Vernon, 20 Colin Gregor, 21 Ruaridh Jackson, 22 Hefin O'Hare.
Cardiff Blues: 15 Ben Blair, 14 Gareth Thomas, 13 Jamie Robinson, 12 Ceri Sweeney, 11 Tom James, 10 Nicky Robinson, 9 Jason Spice, 8 Mark Lewis, 7 Robin Sowden-Taylor, 6 Mamma Molitika, 5 Paul Tito, 4 Deiniol Jones, 3 Gary Powell, 2 T R Thomas, 1 Taufa'ao Filise.
Replacements: 16 Scott Roberts, 17 Gareth Williams, 18 Scott Morgan, 19 Ben White,
20 Richie Rees, 21 Dafydd Hewitt, 22 Richard Mustoe, 23 Chris Czekaj.
Referee: Colin Stanley (Ireland)
Touch judges: Rob Dickson (Scotland), Graeme Marshall (Scotland)
