Cardiff Blues 11 Newport Gwent Dragons 6
Cardiff Blues edged a narrow victory over Newport Gwent Dragons to maintain their charge for the Magners League title. Ben White crashed over for the winner on sixty-five minutes to settle a passion-fuelled local derby at the Arms Park.
Ceri Sweeney’s late penalty clinched a valuable bonus point for the Dragons though the end of the game was marred by a brawl that saw Blues lock Paul Tito and Dragons No.8 Joe Bearman sent off. A near sell-out Arms Park crowd, 12,532, was the biggest attendance for a Magners League game in Wales this season and proved the Welsh derbies between the four regions remain as popular as ever.
The Blues welcomed back Nick MacLeod with a timely return from injury following the loss of Nick Robinson and Dai Flanagan, and it was the youngster’s boot that finally brought this local derby to life after a muted start, MacLeod slotting over from in front of the posts on fifteen minutes after Jamie Roberts’s half break.
However, the Dragons were desperate to gain revenge on their neighbours for the defeat early in the season at Rodney Parade. Kevin Morgan wasted a clear opening with what should have been a scoring pass to Adam Jones with a clear passage to the try line, drifted forward. Aled Thomas levelled the scores when Jamie Robinson was penalised for holding onto the ball in the twenty-first minute, only for the Dragons to implode when both props were sin-binned in the space of three minutes.
Gethin Robinson saw yellow for dragging down a scrum before Adam Black followed for deliberately knocking away Richie Rees’s pass. That opened the door for a Blues barrage as the Arms Park outfit hammered away at the Dragons try line. Tom Shanklin and Andy Powell both went close while Robin Sowden-Taylor saw his effort ruled out for crossing.
Yet despite having just six forwards for the last eight minutes of the half, the Dragons dug-in for an heroic last stand to keep their hosts at bay until the half-time whistle, which came as music to their ears.
Back to full strength, the Dragons threw on experience from the bench in the second half in the shape of Colin Charvis, Michael Owen and Sweeney, but the Blues kept their grip on the game and after young replacement scrum-half Darren Allinson kicked up field, flanker White pounced on the Dragons mistake from the resulting lineout for the game’s only try. MacLeod missed the penalty and as the game ground out with few chances for either side, that allowed Sweeney to snatch the consolation of a losing bonus point late on.
