Heineken Cup - Cardiff Blues v Edinburgh

Cardiff Blues made a winning start to their 2010 Heineken Cup campaign at the Cardiff City stadium on Saturday night, beating Edinburgh 18-17 in a generally poor game.  This was not a convincing performance by the in-form Magners League side with plenty of chances missed and some poor refereeing.

Perhaps the most noticeable aspect was the poor performance of fly-half Dan Parks who squandered 14 points with the boot (17 if you count a drop goal chance which nine times out of ten he'd score). Parks missed 3 penalties in the opening 10 minutes after the Blues had already gone 0-3 down.  It was surprising that given the Blues kicking strength Ben Blair or Leigh Halfpenny didn't step up and take over kicking duties.

Two well worked tries made all the difference in the end. The first was scored when Cardiff had a 14-15 man advantage following the sin-binning of Edinburgh full back, Chris Paterson. Chris Czekaj touched down and Parks converted.  In the second half another piece of magic from Kiwi centre, Casey Laulala, saw the Blues take an 18-10 lead with just 5 minutes remaining. However, a late converted try from Edinburgh meant a nervous last few minutes for the Blues.

This was the not the convincing performance which has defined their Magners League season so far, but coach Dai Young admitted afterwards that he was happy with the win.  However, it is clear that Cardiff Blues will need to play better away against Castres next weekend if they are to progress safely through this group.