Blues bring Edinburgh back to reality

Edinburgh 10 Cardiff Blues 50

Depleted Edinburgh came crashing back down to earth after their Heineken Cup heroics as lethal Cardiff ran riot in the Celtic League at stormy Meadowbank.

The Blues were clearly in determined mood and broke the deadlock on their way to a seven-try romp with barely 60 seconds on the clock.

The Gunners were caught offside, leaving Nick Robinson to bang over the penalty into the teeth of the wind from 35 metres out.

Despite the elements, the Welshmen looked the more potent unit but Craig Joiner’s massive clearance kick to touch inside enemy territory relieved the home pressure.

Edinburgh stole the line-out, giving Ally Warnock the time and space to slot a fine opportunist drop goal to level the contest.

Cardiff responded in positive fashion to force the Gunners into a period of defence – and it was a slip by Warnock which presented them with the opening touchdown.

After the stand-off had knocked on virtually under his own crssbar, Andrew Moore delivered the scoring pass to Donovan van Vuuren.

Robinson slotted the conversion from an awkward angle – but minutes later he shook his head in dismay as a simple penalty crashed back off the post.

The Welshmen kept up the momentum and deservedly stretched their advantage with a fine finish by Nick Walne after more strong work by van Vuuren.

Edinburgh countered through Tom Philip, whose battling run out of defence paved the way for Conan Sharman to mark his comeback with a long-range effort, goaled by Warnock.

But with just second of the half left, Australian World Cup ace Matt Cockbain celebrated his Cardiff debut with their third touchdown, converted by Robinson.

The visitors upped the tempo even further after the restart and snuffed out the challenge of the Gunners with a burst of two more tries.

Rob Appleyard’s counter made sure of the bonus point – then veteran centre Matt Allen ploughed through for number five.

The one-way traffic continued as Jonny Vaughton and Nick MacLeod joined in the rout.

Robinson kept up his superb kicking sequence by landing all four conversions.