BLUES JOY IN A FLAT HEINEKEN CUP CLASH; Young's men off to a winning start against not-so-mighty Quins.

Byline: Andy Howell

IT was dour and frankly, at times, downright boring but Blues had the character to chisel out a desperately needed victory and get their latest bid for European glory off to a successful start.

Only their determination, aided by the clueless rugby of Harlequins, ensured home fans in a crowd of 11,127 at the Cardiff City Stadium left happy last season's Heineken Cup semi-finalists hadn't faltered at the first hurdle of the new tournament.

Neither Blues or their supporters went into the Pool Five encounter exactly brimming with confidence following just one win since May 10.

But scandal-hit Harlequins are clearly not prioritising the European showpiece, using this fixture to rest their star England players Ugo Monye, Nick Easter and Danny Care.

They are all members of the Red Rose Elite Player Squad, which means they had to be given a game off in four or the club would face sanctions from the Rugby Football Union.

And, given Harlequins' fear of officialdom after being found guilty following their extensively documented use of a fake blood capsule in last season's Heineken quarter-final with Leinster, it was somewhat understandable they didn't want to incur the wrath of English rugby's power-brokers.

As coach John Kingston pointed out afterwards, their priority is to avoid relegation from the Guinness Premi- ership and they had to play their leading trio against Newcastle Falcons and Bath as they searched for their opening victory of the campaign.

With Toulouse heading to The Stoop in the Heineken next week, it didn't need Sherlock Holmes to deduce they were going to rest Monye, Easter and Care from the trip to the Welsh capital.

However, the irony was, had their big guns faced the Blues, there's a real possibility they might have headed back over the Severn Crossing with a victory under their belt.

Without Easter and company, they were incompetent. At times, it seemed they didn't know what a rugby ball was and one wonders whether they used said item at training.

Unfortunately, Blues weren't good enough to take advantage with their lack of confidence plain to see.

If this encounter had taken place last April, David Young's side would have put 50 points on this hopeless Harlequins side and racked up a bonus point.

But changes in personnel, particularly at half-back following the departure of influential pair Jason Spice and Nicky Robinson, have disrupted Blues and they were hit by more injuries against Harlequins.

Prop John Yapp, wing Gareth Thomas and forwards Bradley Davies and Paul Tito all had to be replaced.

The loss of locks Davies and Tito could have proved costly but Andy Powell did a sterling job as a makeshift replacement in the boiler-house at the scrum and they managed to batten down the hatches at the lineout.

Coach Young will hope, just like last season when they scraped victory at Sale Sharks in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, this is a result which will prove to be a turning point.

They return to Stockport-based Sale on Friday night and victory over Kingsley Jones' side would keep Blues on-course to emulate last season's heroics.

No 8 Xavier Rush, promising flanker Sam Warburton and replacement lock Deiniol Jones were at the heart of the effort against Harlequins.

But they still failed to produce the quick ball which would have given star centres Jamie Roberts and Tom Shanklin opportunities to flourish.

The pair showed what they could do when the game finally sparked into life - two minutes into the second half - following a long-range penalty from Thomas' replacement Leigh Halfpenny.

The Wales winger's 56-metre attempt bounced back off an upright and Harlequins ran out of defence. The Londoners did rather well, for them, until opting to kick ahead rather than keep the ball in hand.

So Blues countered from their own half with Roberts, Shanklin and new No 10 Sam Norton-Knight combining to send Tom James plunging over for a try.

Full-back Ben Blair, who had kicked two first-half penalties to Harlequins outside-half Nick Evans' one, converted and they were 13-3 up.

But former All Black Blair missed an easy penalty and Australian international Norton-Knight steered a drop-goal attempt wide.

When Harlequins did get into a good position - lazy defending by Blues allowed a simple loop to work - they opted to put a penalty into the corner, only for their Wales prop cap Ceri Jones to knock on at the subsequent lineout.

A penalty from Evans saw them reduce their arrears to seven points. But full-back Mike Brown knocked on with the try-line at their mercy and they were controversially penalised by Irish referee Alan Lewis while inches from the Blues try-line.

When a final attempt to salvage a draw broke down, Deiniol Jones picked up the ball and kicked ahead for flyer Halfpenny to chase, hack-on and score.

The margin of victory might have flattered Blues but they you'd bet they'd take a similar result at Sale!

TO THE POINT Blues B Blair; G Thomas (L Halfpenny 24), T Shanklin, J Roberts, T James; S Norton-Knight, R Rees (G Cooper 80); J Yapp (G Powell 30-39, S Hobbs 74), G Williams, T Filise (Powell 66), B Davies (D Jones 33), P Tito (capt) (R Sowden-Taylor 39), A Powell, X Rush, S Warburton.

Scorers Tries: James, Halfpenny; cons: Blair (2); pens: Blair (2).

Harlequins M Brown; D Strettle, G Tiesi, T Masson, G Camacho (G Lowe 37); N Evans, S So''oialo; C Jones, T Fuga (C Brooker 60), M Lambert (J Andress 60), L Stevenson, J Evans (S O''Connor 60), C Robshaw, T Guest, W Skinner (capt).

Scorers Pens: Evans (2).

Attendance: 11,127 Referee: A Lewis (Ireland)

CAPTION(S):

Xavier Rush on the charge Andy Powell gets to grips with Gonzalo Camacho during the Blues' Heineken Cup opener against Harlequins at Cardiff City Stadium