Went down to watch the Heineken Cup semi final at the Millenium stadium. It was a Sunday and Cardiff was not as busy. There is definitely a better atmosphere on a Saturday in the city. Cardiff Rugby club was virtually empty three hours before kick-off.
The first half was fairly evenly contested until Leicester wing Hamilton touched down after a telling break from Flood. This first try increased Leicester's confidence and they continued to dominate the possession well into the second half. A second try early in the after the break saw the Leciester take their lead to 26-12. With only twenty minutes it was getting pretty grim for the Blues. They weren't played bad but they couldn't quite get the better of Leicester's excellent defence. At fourteen points down and in the 74th minute the Blues had a line out in Leicester's half. This was to be the start of an incredible 6 minutes of rugby from the home side. Clean line out ball was secure and I watched the Blues backline go through a planned move. My eye was drawn to the arcing run that Jamie Roberts was making. Shanklin, the outside centre came in as decoy runner and Roberts drifted outside to latch on to a great pass from Nicky Robinson. Roberts then burst through the midfield defence and sprinted towards Leicester's twenty two. The Leicester fullback wasn't near him and Roberts had enough pace to cross the line for an excellent team try. It was great watching it from my position in the stand. Ben Blair converted a difficult kicked.
Leicester restarted and the Blues received the ball in their own twenty two. What followed turned out to be one of the tries of the season. The ball found it's way to Jamie Roberts and he made the telling break through the midfield defence again. He got his way to the half line and passed to Tom James on the wing who put the burners on and sprinted towards the line. In a classic bit of wing play he went round the covering defender and had enough gas to score in the corner. The stadium erupted, was this to be an amazing comeback? Ben Blair kicked another superb conversion to level the scores and the final whistle came too soon for Cardiff.
Twenty minutes of extra time, ten minutes each way, turned out to be a tense affair. No side really managed to create any clear chances. There was one heart stopping moment in the first period when a long range drop kick from Leicester nearly went over. Extra time yielded no further points and the game went into an historic penalty shoot out. Five kicks at goal from the 22 metre line in front of the posts. After 5 kicks it was 4 all and it went into a sudden death scenario. Martyn Williams missed a kick and it was left to Jordan Crane to slot one over to claim the win for Leicester. Incredible drama. Anyone who went to the game will never forgot those last 8 minutes in the game when Cardiff scored two tries.
On balance of play Leicester probably deserved the win but what a cruel way to lose.
My man of the match: Jamie Roberts.
