The biggest game in the recent sporting history of the city of Cardiff was supposed to have happened 24 hours earlier. The Amlin Challenge Cup might not carry quite the same kudos, let alone the excessive riches, of promotion to English football's Premier League. But the hard-earned success of the Cardiff Blues players in European rugby union's second most important knock-out tournament yesterday will have at least helped ease the heartache of some of the sports fans in the Welsh capital.
Cardiff City's loss to Blackpool on Saturday cost the football club an estimated £95 million (Dh532m) in predicted Premier League revenue over the next four years. The city's rugby players were playing for peanuts in comparison in Marseille yesterday, but their win over the star-studded Toulon side still marked a significant watershed. The triumph, secured via tries from the Wales trio of Jamie Roberts, Leigh Halfpenny and the outstanding Bradley Davies, provided the first European trophy of any sort for a side from Wales, and winning it against this Toulon side will have made victory even sweeter.
Shaun Edwards, the Wasps, Wales and British & Irish Lions coach, recently termed Toulon the "Real Madrid of rugby" because of the array of Galacticos in their ranks, assembled by their free-spending owner Mourad Boudjellal, the man with the deepest pockets in rugby and overseen by Philippe Saint-Andre, Toulon's director of rugby. The Challenge Cup features low down the pecking order for many of Europe's elite clubs, but has a special place in Saint-Andre's affections.
He won the competition in his previous posting, at Sale Sharks, then followed that by guiding the club to the Guinness Premiership title in England. His pursuit of another success in the competition faltered yesterday when Toulon's leading light, the England fly-half Jonny Wilkinson, limped out of the game midway through the second half. Wilkinson, who had been mercifully free from injury of late, missed a penalty, then immediately went down in anguish with an ailment that was not obvious to discern.
He was helped from the field and his absence immediately put the previously dominant Toulon side out of kilter. Tom May, Wilkinson's former Newcastle colleague who moved with him across the Channel last summer, assumed his place at No10, but not his poise. Soon after, May was caught behind his own try line, and Cardiff were rewarded for their pressure from the ensuing five-metre scrum with a try for Roberts, the Wales centre.
Toulon reasserted a semblance of control when May stroked over a penalty from the touchline straight afterwards. However, with no Wilkinson at the helm, the French side lost their way. Spurred on by the prompting of Richie Rees, their scrum-half, Cardiff wrestled control and dotted down two scores in quick succession to break the hearts of the majority of the 50,000 crowd. Halfpenny, the winger who had opened the scoring early on with a long-range penalty, crossed in the corner.
Davies, who captained Wales at the IRB Under 19 World Cup in Dubai four years ago, then sealed the victory by capping an irrepressible defensive display with a rare try of his own. * Compiled by Paul Radley
