Jason Harries returned to haunt his former side as Cardiff Blues staged a remarkable second-half comeback to defeat Edinburgh 19-17 at BT Murrayfield. The former Edinburgh man started on the bench for the visitors but was introduced after the restart and grabbed a brace to down Richard Cockerill’s men. Edinburgh appeared to be coasting at half-time, leading 14-0 thanks to tries from Nathan Fowles and Bill Mata, and they extended their lead with a penalty from Jaco van der Walt. But the Blues love playing in Edinburgh, winning on six of their last seven visits to the Scottish capital in the Guinness PRO14, and three second-half tries turned the game on its head. The result was a boost for Cardiff’s Guinness PRO14 Final Series ambitions, moving them level on points with Connacht in Conference A, while Edinburgh slipped to fourth in Conference B. The hosts got off to a bright start and crossed the whitewash after seven minutes, with David Cherry’s brilliant break and offload setting up Fowles for the opening try. Van der Walt added the extras and it was not long before Edinburgh were over for a second try, with Mata adding to his points tally for the season with another score. That is the effort it took tonight. Literally out in their feet. A monumental effort to come back pic.twitter.com/yCBp6YEkfr — Cardiff Blues (@cardiff_blues) February 23, 2019 The Fijian ran at the Cardiff defence before being brought down, but Fowles gathered the ball and found a gap in the visitors’ line before whipping the ball back to the No.8 to dot down. Van der Walt converted once again to double Edinburgh’s lead, before Mata came to the fore at the other end of the pitch with a try-saving tackle to deny Lloyd Williams. The hosts maintained their 14-0 lead going into the break, leaving the Blues with a mountain to climb in the second half to get themselves back into the game. And their task was made even harder when van der Walt slotted a penalty seven minutes after the restart, with the Blues penalised for an infringement right in front of the posts. The visitors had to score next and they did just that moments later when Ollie Robinson put Harries through the hole, with the latter offloading to Williams to finish the move off. Jarrod Evans converted and suddenly Blues had their tails up. A second try soon followed just after the hour mark, with Harries this time crossing against his former team. While Evans was unable to convert, Cardiff made the most of their momentum to grab the lead for the first time as Aled Summerhill put Harries away for his second try of the game. A fine conversion from the touchline from Evans put the Blues two points ahead with less than ten minutes on the clock and they held on to claim a memorable victory.
