There were two strong favourites in Pool One of the Heineken Cup before this year's skirmishes got under way and both of them were at home to the underdogs in the first round of matches. Both of them won, but both of them flopped. On Friday night Northampton struggled past Castres but that was nothing compared to the meal the Cardiff Blues made of their opener on Saturday.
Rob Moffat, Edinburgh's coach, said that the pool was wide open. "I find it strange [that people should consider Northampton and the Blues such favourites]," said Moffat. "For me the pool is similar to the one we had last year. We won our three home games against Stade Français, Bath and Ulster and we should have won two of our away games. And we might look at the Cardiff game today and think we should have won this."
The Scots could have won it, certainly, but in truth the Blues looked like favourites labouring under expectation. Edinburgh fought hard and pinched an opportunistic 10-point lead early on that served them well as they restricted the Blues to just the odd flash of brilliance.
They were also helped by a rare off day with the boot for the Blues' Dan Parks. The Scotland fly-half missed his first three kicks at goal, all penalties, all well within his range, and two more in the second half. It might have been sensible to have thrown the tee to the former New Zealand full-back Ben Blair, but when do you decide enough is enough?
"You've got to leave it to them out there," said Dai Young, the Blues' coach. "We sent a message on saying that Ben was there if Dan felt it wasn't happening for him." The Magners League's all-time leading points-scorer, evidently, did not get where he is today by admitting someone else might do better.
In the end it did not matter, although failing to deny Edinburgh a bonus point may yet haunt the Blues. Not that they deserved much more than a one-point lead. When they were good, which they were for their two tries, scored by Chris Czekaj and Casey Laulala towards the end of each half, they were good. But otherwise they were awful. The first try came during a spell in the sin-bin for Chris Paterson, which the angel of Edinburgh might well think to have been a little harsh.
It is off to Castres for the Blues next and they might well not start as favourites. Edinburgh host Northampton and a win is the least they will expect. Pool One is all to play for – let us hope they start.
Cardiff Blues Blair; Halfpenny, Laulala, Shanklin (Hewitt, 58), Czekaj; Parks, Rees; Jenkins (Yapp, 52), R Thomas, Filise, Davies, Tito (capt; Jones, 62), Molitika, M Williams, Rush.
Tries Czekaj, Laulala Con Parks Pens Parks 2.
Edinburgh Paterson; Thomson, Cairns, Grove (King, 55), Visser; D Blair, M Blair (Laidlaw, 72); Jacobsen (Traynor, 72), Ford (Kelly, 72), Cross (Young, 62), Macleod (Hamilton, 63), McKenzie, Macdonald (Talei, 62), Rennie, Grant (capt; Robertson, 79).
Tries Jacobsen, Cairns Cons Paterson 2 Pen Paterson.
Referee R Poite (France) Attendance 10,521.
