Cardiff ride luck to stay in the race

By ROGER PANTING

Cardiff …………….. 30pts

Tries: Lane 2, 6; Ratti 49, Thomas 80

Conversions: Thomas 49, 80

Penalties: Thomas 13, 28

Benetton …………. 13pts

Tries: Smith 4, Zanon 34

Penalties: Albornoz 40

After a torrid fortnight, Welsh rugby had finally something to cheer as Cardiff picked up a bonus-point to keep alive their hopes of an end of season play-off spot.

It was a double celebration for Cardiff as their scrum-half, Lloyd Williams, broke the region's appearance record in the professional era by clocking up his 256th match.

Cardiff director of rugby Dai Young said: “It's a huge achievement for a humble guy and he is still playing really well so he is likely to set a score which will prove very hard to beat.

“It wasn't perfect tonight as we rode our luck at a few points but there were pleasing elements after a few disappointing performances in recent weeks.”

It certainly wasn't all plain sailing for the hosts as they failed to take advantage of Benetton's persistent ill-discipline and it took them until the last minute to secure a bonus-point with the final score line flattering them.

Benetton were as enterprising as their opponents and but for throwing away two golden opportunities, they could easily have picked up two losing bonus-points, which would have been a huge boost to their hopes of a play-off spot.

Cardiff were indebted to lively performances from Kristian Dacey and Lopeti Timani in the loose with Owen Lane and Ben Thomas the pick of the backs.

It took Cardiff less than 90 seconds to open their account when Owen Lane crashed over from a lineout move but Benetton's response was immediate with skilful ball-retention allowing Rhyno Smith to outflank the cover defence and score.

The game's explosive start continued with a third try in six minutes when Max Llewellyn's pass gave Lane an easy run-in for his second but the hosts suffered an injury blow with Jarrod Evans leaving the field with a neck injury.

Thomas took over the goal-kicking from Evans to succeed with two penalties but the Italians replied with a try from Marco Zanon and a penalty from Tomas Albornoz to leave them trailing 16-13 at the interval.

Two minutes after the restart, Benetton's prop, Tiziano Pasquali, was sin-binned for persistent scrum offences with Cardiff taking advantage by scoring a third try from James Ratti.

With six minutes remaining, Tomas Albornoz was sent off for placing a hand in eye area of Cardiff prop, Keiron Assiratti and the home side capitalised with a fourth try from Thomas with the last play of the match.