Cardiff put below-par Swansea to the sword

Swansea 19 Cardiff 3

Cardiff registered a notable four-try victory over Swansea in this east-west Welsh Premiership tie at St Helen's last night. The victory was all the more remarkable for the capital club, who had disappeared 75-25 under an avalanche of 13 tries in Biarritz last weekend.

But Cardiff recovered to put a below-par Swansea to the sword and in the process move up four places in the Welsh Premiership table to fourth.

Swansea had plenty of possession in the first half but Cardiff profited from their mistakes, scoring three tries before the break through the lock Heino Sennekal, the scrum-half Richard Smith and the wing Craig Morgan.

Swansea were presented with an opportunity to get back into the game when Cardiff's Dan Baugh, of Canada, went off with a head injury after 16 minutes, but this only seemed to spur Cardiff on and they scored 17 points in only 13 minutes.

Swansea could only manage two penalties from Arwel Thomas – one deep into injury time – and they trailed 24-6 at half time.

Thomas struck again with a penalty within two minutes of the restart, but any hopes of a Swansea recovery were dashed by a try for Nick Walne which moved Cardiff into a 29-9 lead.

Cardiff maintained their dominance despite the prop, Tim Payne, being sin-binned and having the back-row replacement Robin Sowden-Taylor carried off injured.

Thomas and Iestyn Harris swapped penalties before Swansea scored their only try of the match a minute into injury time through Gavin Henson.

* Edinburgh Gunners inflicted a 37-9 defeat on Glasgow Warriors at Meadowbank last night in the Bank of Scotland Pro Rugby Cup to virtually ensure passage into next season's Heineken Cup. The home side went ahead after two minutes when Ally Dickson beat freed Brendan Laney to score.