Luck was not on Ben Blair’s side as he missed a late conversion attempt, leaving Edinburgh to pick up a gritty 22-21 victory and ruin Cardiff Blues’ opening night at their new home ground. As Blair lined up his shot at the posts, after a brilliant try from Gareth Thomas had closed the gap to 22-21, the ball fell off the kicking tee and the New Zealander had to quickly reset it. His hurried attempt missed the target to the left and the Blues, watched by over 8,000 spectators, were denied a first night success at Cardiff City Stadium. On reflection, Edinburgh did more than enough to warrant the win – the first of new coach Rob Moffat’s reign. Tries from Alan MacDonald, Tim Visser and Chris Paterson had the Scottish outfit 19-10 ahead early in the second half. Two Blair penalties and Thomas’ try saw Cardiff make a real fight of it, but Edinburgh held on thanks to a 52nd-minute penalty effort from Paterson. The result marked Edinburgh’s third successive win in the Welsh and their fifth in six visits south. Second in last season’s league, the Scots sniffed out an early try. Cardiff’s new number 10, Australian Sam Norton-Knight, had a nightmare start and a charge-down of one of his kicks set up a good attacking position for Edinburgh. Stand-off Phil Godman spun a long pass out to Paterson and the visitors quickly seized on some space which allowed winger Mark Robertson put flanker MacDonald over close to the posts. Paterson’s successful conversion was cancelled out by a Blair penalty, only for Glasgow to hit back with their second try on 16 minutes. Once again Edinburgh showed great willingness to run and exploit the gaps in Cardiff’s defence. Dutch winger Visser crowned his debut with a try after Godman cleverly put him within sight of the whitewash by drawing in the cover and scooping out a well-timed pass. Paterson added the extras for a 14-3 scoreline. Cardiff then managed to reply with the first league try at their new home ground, seven minutes before half-time. Xavier Rush had a hand in the build-up, with a forceful carry, his back row colleague Robin Sowden-Taylor did likewise and winger Chris Czekaj stretched over in the left corner for the touchdown. That was how referee Peter Fitzgibbon viewed it, after consulting with his touch judge. The Irish official was given no reason not to award the try and there was no referral to the television match official. Actual replays of Czekaj lunging for the line suggest that he did have a foot in touch before he grounded the ball, with Edinburgh lock Scott MacLeod catching him with a last-ditch tackle. But the try stood and it was a much-needed break for the Blues, who lost heavily last week at home to Northampton Saints in their final pre-season friendly. Blair swung the conversion over from the touchline for good measure, reducing the arrears to 14-10. That is how it remained for half-time, with both Godman and Paterson missing pops at the goal from penalties. Nevertheless, Edinburgh were right back at full throttle for the second half and served up a superb try by Paterson. Once again Godman had a hand in the build-up. His crossfield kick was gathered by Robertson who passed the ball back inside for Paterson to take it and romp 40 yards all the way to the line. A penalty apiece from Blair and Paterson saw the gap remain at nine points (22-13) and for all the try-scoring potential of Edinburgh, they could not put the Blues completely away. The hosts tagged on another penalty from Blair and then former Wales captain Thomas took centre stage, rolling back the years as he surged past four defenders on a memorable 35-yard run to the line. Blair chalked up his first miss of the night with the conversion and Edinburgh held on to take the four league points back home, much to the delight of Rob Moffat who succeeded Andy Robinson in the coaching role. He said afterwards: "We produced a lot of good attacking play in the first half, but we should have been further ahead and we needed to be more clinical. "If we had converted more of our chances in the first half then we would have won the game comfortably. "We showed good attitude in the second half to keep them out in the end. "All in all, it was a deserved win and a good way to start the season, but there is still a long way to go. "Hopefully this result encourages more people to come to the Connacht match next Friday and for them to get behind the team." Cardiff will have to raise their game for their round two fixture away to champions Munster. In his post-match interview, Blues boss Young said: "It was hugely disappointing although we were better second half. "Perhaps we could have nicked it but, let’s be honest, that’s exactly what it would have been. "Now is not the time to panic, but there’s a lot of work to be done and I’ve just said to the players that we’ve got to do it together."
