Cardiff Blues beat Gloucester in nail-biting finish to win European Challenge Cup final and add to English misery

Cardiff Blues 31-30 Gloucester: Gareth Anscombe seals victory with a minute left on the clock to continue a miserable season for English clubs in Europe

Cardiff Blues celebrates winning the European Challenge Cup final after beating Gloucester 31-30 (Getty)

Gareth Anscombe must have feared the worst when his 77th-minute penalty floated wide of the uprights. But he needn’t have worried as his penalty at the death two minutes later secured a nail-biting 31-30 victory over Gloucester to claim the European Challenge Cup and inflict yet another defeat on English rugby.

England may have beaten Wales in the Six Nations, but it’s been a woeful season for Premiership clubs in Europe. Gloucester had a chance to address that here in the first ever European rugby final to be played in Spain, but they let slip a 14-point half-time lead at Bilbao’s San Mames Stadium and were left to rue switching off during the third quarter.

Two first-half tries from Henry Trinder and Mark Atkinson – a try of the season contender – plus 10 points from the boot of Billy Twelvetrees – gave Gloucester a healthy 20-6 lead at the break, but Cardiff hit back inside the first minute of the second half through Tomos Williams, added a second not long after from Garyn Smith and scored an important third late in the game from Blaine Scully that set-up Anscombe’s grandstand moment.

Mark Atkinson celebrates scoring Gloucester's second try (Getty)

By all accounts it was a perfect first half for Gloucester – two tries to show for their hard work, two excellent finishes and their own try line well intact. The first points on the board did come from Cardiff in the form of a Jarrod Evans penalty after a Nick Williams turnover, but seven minutes in Gloucester began to click and made swift progress to the Blues’ line. With a penalty advantage Billy Burns elected for a cross-field kick and Trinder pulled off a lovely diving catch in the art of scoring.

Twelvetrees added the difficult touchline conversion and three more points just shy of the half-hour mark after Evans had added his second penalty, but just as the Blues looked to have stemmed the tide of attacks coming their way, Gloucester hit them hard.

Twlevetrees was at the centre of the move that led to one of the tries of the season, as the centre – who it’s worth noting is not a million miles away from an England recall if he keeps this form up – delayed his pass, sucked in replacement wing Smith and freed Trinder to burst down the left wing. His pass inside to scrum-half Callum Braley committed last man Anscombe, and Braley released Atkinson to canter over and finish a flowing 65 metre effort.

Tomos Williams' second-half try triggered the fightback (Getty)

Twelvetrees had enough time to add one further penalty to stretch the lead to 20-6 at the break, and Cardiff’s cause was not helped either by the loss of influential Wales flanker Josh Navidi and wing Owen Lane – both to bad-looking injuries to their right arm.

Cardiff needed an immediate response with the game drifting away from them – and they got it within 45 second of the restart.

It was Anscombe who produced it, with his chip, chase and collect breaking the line and second kick in setting up a foot-race between the two scrum-halves. Tomos Williams won it, hacking the ball on, and when it bounced back off the post protector it kindly fell into his path for the Blues’ No 9 to dive on it and slide over the line to score, with Evans adding the conversion from in front of the posts.

Billy Twelvetrees celebrates after James Hanson scores Gloucester's third try (Getty)

But luckily for the Premiership side, the second try appeared to kick them into life. Going back to basics, Burns kicked the ball deep and pressure from the kick-chase caused a rushed clearance kick from Anscombe. Gloucester duly set up a driving maul from the lineout, made quick ground and it was the hooker James Hanson who emerged with the ball having scored the try. Twelvetrees converted and added three more points four minutes later when a completed front-row change had its desire effect in winning a penalty in the scrum – after Lewis Ludlow had knocked 10 bells out of Anscombe with a crunching hit as he caught a high kick in one of the tackles of the season.

Ludlow went from hero to zero though as he was sent to the sin-bin in the 74th minute for repeated infringements in the red zone, and two minutes later Scully capitalised on a two-man overlap to slide over in the corner. Anscombe couldn’t add the conversion, but when Tom Marshall was penalised for holding on deep in his 22, Anscombe’s moment in the starlight came not long after to a raucous response.

Teams

Cardiff Blues: Gareth Anscombe; Owen Lane (Garyn Smith (29), Rey Lee-Lo, Willis Halaholo, Blaine Scully; Jarrod Evans (Matthew Morgan, 69), Tomos Williams (Lloyd Williams, 69); Rhys Gill (Brad Thyer, 61), Kristian Dacey, Taufa'ao Filise (Scott Andrews, h-t); Seb Davies, Josh Turnbull; Josh Navidi (Olly Robinson, 7), Ellis Jenkins, Nick Williams (Damian Welch, 72).

Replacements not used: Kirby Myhill.

Gloucester: Jason Woodward; Tom Marshall, Billy Twelvetrees, Mark Atkinson, Henry Trinder; Billy Burns (Andy Symons, 69), Callum Braley; Josh Hohneck (Val Rapava Ruskin, 60), James Hanson (Motu Matu’u, 60), John Afoa (Fraser Balmain, 60); Ed Slater, Mariano Galarza (Jeremy Thrush, 51-61 HIA); Jake Polledri, Lewis Ludlow, Ruan Ackermann (Ben Morgan, 69).

Replacements not used: Freddie Clarke, Ben Vellacott, Tom Hudson.