Cardiff Blues rally to deny Cheetahs a first win of the season

Edinburgh move off bottom of Conference B after high-scoring win over Benetton

Cardiff’s Rey Lee-Loo is tackled by Joseph Dweba of the Cheetahs during the Guinness Pro14 game at Cardiff Arms Park. Photograph: Alex Davidson/Inpho

Cheetahs were denied their first Guinness Pro 14 win of the season as Cardiff Blues overturned an 11-point deficit in the final quarter to nick a narrow 24-21 victory at the Arms Park.

Cheetahs had built a 21-10 lead with tries from Walt Steenkamp, Sibhale Maxwane and Benhard Janse van Rensburg with Tian Schoeman converting all three.

Blues responded with tries from Ray Lee-Lo, Lloyd Williams and Olly Robinson, with Gareth Anscombe adding three conversions and a penalty.

Edinburgh moved away from the bottom of the Conference B table with a tense 31-30 win over a battling Benetton side.

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As had been the case in their previous home match, Edinburgh failed to capitalise on lengthy spells of pressure, particularly in the first half, meaning that they never quite managed to shake off the determined visitors.

The Scottish outfit scored tries through Matt Scott, Duhan van der Merwe, Blair Kinghorn and Dougie Fife, all converted by Simon Hickey who also booted a penalty.

Benetton had an early Tommaso Allan penalty plus tries from Luca Sperandio and Marco Fuser – the latter converted by Allan – to show for their first-half efforts.

Sperandio added two more before Marco Barbini scrambled over to set up a frantic finale, and they could have taken more than just two bonus points had they been successful with any one of four missed conversions.