Cardiff weathered a long period of pressure from Caerphilly, but ran out comfortable winners after a late second-half burst.

It was a cagey opening 10 minutes to the match, with Caerphilly's Geraint Lewis the only winger to receive a pass before being shepherded into touch.

When the home side were penalised, Nicky Robinson - continuing to deputise for the injured Neil Jenkins - opened the scoring with a penalty.

When Greg Kacala made a telling break close to the scrumage, Jim Brownrigg took his pass to gallop 30 metres to the try line.

Robinson converted with a fine kick from the touch line.

The Cardiff forwards worked hard to nullify the efforts of a lively Caerphilly pack and there were some excellent passing between forwards and backs that kept the home side pinned in their own half.

Robinson put over two more penalties to maintain a comfortable lead for Cardiff.

Lewis then went over to score for Caerphilly and although Luke Richards was unable to convert, he slotted a penalty to reduce the arrears to 16-8 at half time.

Wing power

A marvellous break out from defence and a superb run for nearly 40 metres from prop Gary Powell almost got the second half off to a blistering start, but Ryan Powell was unable to take his inside pass.

Lively hooker Greg Woods did go over for the visitors, but Robinson could not convert.

Caerphilly then rallied as Mark Workman registered their second try of the afternoon.

But it was the big New Zealander Craig Hudson who made all the difference in the last quarter.

Bursting through attempted tackles, he crossed for two excellent scores and was followed by a score from Matt Allen.

Little was seen on the other wing of Andrew Henry, son of Wales coach Graham Henry, and he was substituted mid-way through the second half.

Robinson continued to have a great influence on the play and his try was Cardiff sixth in total.

He converted himself for a personal contribution of 21 points.

Pressure

"We limited our mistakes and have improved our scrumages and lineouts a great deal," said Cardiff assistant coach Geraint John.

"We played the territory game well and did not put too much pressure on ourselves.

"This is necessary when you have so many youngsters in the side.

"They settled well and Nicky Robinson made a great contribution.

"Caerphilly are always a difficult side to beat. They worked well and only faded in the last quarter of the match."

Home boss Gareth Nicholas also admitted his team had run out of steam towards the end.

He said: "We were right in it up until 20 minutes from the end.

"It's so demoralising to play so well and with such a motivation and structure and still go down by nearly 50 points.

"Nobody can be faulted for their effort or commitment. We just ran out of steam and lost our shape in the last quarter, but we are continuing to improve every week."

Caerphilly (8) 15 Tries: Lewis, Workman. Cons: Richards. Pens: Richards.
Cardiff (16) 49 Tries: Hudson 2, Allen, N. Robinson, Woods, Brownrigg. Cons: N. Robinson 5. Pens: N. Robinson 3.

Caerphilly: J Thomas; N Berbillion, D Hawkins (capt), G Evans, G Lewis; L Richards, A Chiltern; I Jones, D Geraghty, G Thomas, N Watkins, M Workman, B Watkins, S Grainger, A Williams.
Replacements: S Lawrence, S Tuipuluto, R Geenslade-Jones, D Davies, J Hughes, T Marsden, A Jones.

Cardiff: R Williams; C Hudson, M Allen, P Muller (capt), A Henry; N Robinson, R Powell; S John, G Woods, G Powell, C Quinnell, J Brownrigg, D McShane, R Appleyard, G Kacala.
Replacements: D Young, A Lewis, J Tait, R Sowden-Taylor, P Jones, N Wakely, C Miller.

Referee: Paul Adams (Welsh RFU)