 | HEINEKEN CUP POOL 6 Blues: (3) 15:
Tries: Dewdney 2.
Con: L Thomas.
Pen: L Thomas. Stade Francais: (11) 38:
Tries: Arias, Mauro Bergamasco, Marconnet, Quesada.
Cons: Skrela 3.
Pens: Skrela 3.
DG: Quesada. Att: 7,128 |
Cardiff Blues suffered another bad Heineken Cup loss as they were outmuscled at home by Stade Francais. Despite some incisive back play that earned two tries for Dean Dewdney, the Welsh were outclassed in the scrum and incompetent at the lineout.
Mauro Bergamasco and Sylvain Marconnet scored from powerful rolling mauls.
But the pick of the tries was Julien Arias' length of the field run, while Gonzalo Quesada's late charge-down earned a bonus point for the Frenchmen.
The Blues put themselves under needless early pressure as they lost ground because of Gareth Williams' wonky throw-ins at the line-out.
That eventually presented Stade with the first chance of points after eight minutes as Craig Quinnell was penalised in a ruck, David Skrela stroking the long effort through the posts.
The Cardiff side kept ball in hand to stretch Stade and young fly-half Lee Thomas levelled the scores with a penalty after half-an-hour.
However, it was Stade who went into the break in the lead thanks to a drop-goal from Quesada, on for the injured Mirco Bergamasco, and a magnificent try from Arias.
|  Our line-out was a combination of poor calls and poor throws |
The wing, who only turned 21 this week, took a crash ball up the side of a ruck in his own 22 and brushed through Tom Shanklin's tackle to burst clear.
Handing-off Blues full-back Craig Morgan, Arias applied the treatment to Shanklin again to claim an unconverted try that made it 11-3 to Stade at half-time.
Morgan made amends soon after the restart with an inspired chip and gather, releasing Rhys Williams and Shanklin to send replacement wing Dewdney over in the left corner.
Thomas missed the difficult conversion but the Blues were right back in the match at 8-11.
Yet again the good work was undone by Gareth Williams' line-out throwing, as Christophe Dominici counter-attacked from another wayward ball.
Quinnell just had time to get sin-binned for loitering offside before Mauro Bergamasco was shunted over from an attacking line-out, Skrela adding the conversion.
Blues coach Dai Young at last put Gareth Williams out of his misery by sending on Rhys Thomas in his place at hooker.
But the Stade pack soon barged their way over again, prop Marconnet benefiting with a converted try to make it 25-8 to the visitors.
Dewdney closed the gap with his second try, this time converted, after another scorching break from Rhys Williams, but a Skrela penalty eased Stade away again at 28-15.
All the Frenchmen needed was a fourth try for a bonus point, which Quesada provided by charging down Rhys Williams' kick to score under the points.
Skrela added a penalty deep in injury time to round things off and put Stade in control of Pool 6.
But the Blues are now looking down the barrel having already lost in Ulster last week.
Blues: C Morgan; N Walne, R Williams, T Shanklin, J Vaughton; L Thomas, R Smith; G Jenkins, G Williams, M Jones, C Quinnell, D Jones, N Thomas, M Williams (capt), K Schubert.
Replacements: B Evans, A Lewis, T Rhys Thomas, R Sidoli, N Budgett, D Dewdney, N Macleod.
Stade Francais: C Dominici; J Arias, S Glas, Mirco Bergamasco, R Poulain; D Skrela, A Pichot; P Lemoine, M Blin, S Marconnet, D Auradou (capt), M James, P Rabadan, Mauro Bergamasco, S Sowerby.
Replacements: A Castola, R Roncero, O Brouzet, C Moni, R Jechoux, G Quesada, J Fillol.
Referee: Tony Spreadbury (England).
MMIX
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
