London Irish slip past Cardiff Blues in LV= Cup

London Irish defeated defending champions the Cardiff Blues by a single point in their dour 12-11 Anglo-Welsh Cup match at the Cardiff Stadium.

Tom Homer opened the scoring for London Irish with a penalty kick in the ninth minute.

Ceri Sweeney equalised with a well-taken penalty for the Cardiff Blues in the 18th minute.

The score was deadlocked on 3-3 for the next twenty minutes, before a Peter Hewat penalty in the 38th minute saw the visitors go into the break with a three point lead.

Another Hewat penalty saw the London giants edge to equalised with their hosts in the 41st minute.

Sweeney drew the Blues level again with another successful penalty in the 50th minutes.

Richie Rees scored the only try of the match in the 52nd minute to give the Blues the lead, but they were unable to convert for two extra points.

A penalty from substitute Ryan Lamb in the 71st minute, saw Irish take the valuable lead yet again.

Sweeney missed an ambitious 50 yard penalty in the final moments of the match to gift the Exiles with their first win in the competition this season.

Final Score Cardiff 11 London Irish 12

Scorers

Cardiff:
Tries – Richie Rees
Penalties – Ceri Sweeney (x2)

London Irish:
Penalties – Tom Homer, Peter Hewat (2), Ryan Lamb

Teams

Cardiff Blues: Norton-Knight, Mustoe, Thomas, Hewitt, Czekaj, Sweeney, Rees, Rush, Navidi, White, Morgan, Jones, Powell, Williams, Filise. Replacements: Thomas Hobbs, Andrews, Down, Dicomidis, Allinson, Evans, Blair

London Irish: Lennard, Hewat, Homer, Gower, Rudd, Malone, Richards, Thorpe, Fisher, Roche, Johnson, Perry, Corbisiero, Paice, Murphy. Replacements: Buckland, Coetzee, Lahiff, Garvey, Armitage, Watson, Catt, Joseph