CARDIFF laboured long and hard in pursuit of a four-try victory over the highly competitive Milanese to secure a quarter-final place in near darkness at the Arms Park yesterday.
Tries by Mike Hall, Robert Howley, Just in Thomas and Mark Bennett papered over the cracks in a dogged Cardiff performance which relied heavily on a 21-point contribution by goal kicker Lee Jarvis to keep the Italians at arms' length.
The Welsh club, who have completed their pool games, will have to wait until Saturday to find out whether they have a home tie against either Dax, Bath or Pontypridd on November 16th-17th.
Despite their discouraging start to the domestic season, Cardiff have to date proved themselves a credible force in Europe, even though they went for nearly an hour after a bright start without crossing the Milan line. Cardiff adapted quickly to the wet and windy conditions, kicking a succession of tap penalties close to the Italian line which forced Milan to make their first-time tackles count.
Welsh pressure was so unrelenting that, almost inevitably, a gap opened in the Milan defence after seven minutes which allowed the predatory centre Hall to storm through for a try to the right of the posts, which Jarvis converted.
Six minutes later Cardiff capitalised sweetly on a line-out a few metres from the left corner flag when Milan, concentration clearly undermined by their early toil, left another defensive gap where the inside centre should have been. The giant lock Keith Stewart tapped Humphreys' throw neatly into the hands of Howley who bustled around the tail of the line-out for an opportunist score which Jarvis converted.
Minutes later the Cardiff outside-half landed a 35-metre penalty which increased the lead to 17-0.
Notwithstanding their two-try opening, Cardiff proceeded to make an apparently straightforward afternoon surprisingly difficult for themselves by resting on their laurels when they really ought to have killed Milan off before half time.
The Welsh side sought to make amends for their loss of focus up front, moving the ball through their three-quarters at speed and compelling the Milanese backs to work overtime to shore up their cover defence.
However, midway through the first half Milan began to gain a territorial advantage thanks to the pinpoint kicking of their Argentine-born outside-half Diego Dominguez. When Cardiff fell offside at a ruck, Dominguez kicked a confident penalty from 30 metres, and shortly afterwards Milan were unlucky to be denied a try by the referee when the wing Marcello Cuttitta squeezed over for a touchdown at the left flag.
Just past the half hour it was the turn of Cardiff to have an apparently good try by their replacement, Ian Jones, disallowed due to a midfield misdemeanour by their number eight, Hemi Taylor, during the build Lip. After the French referee Bernard Perez consulted a touch judge. Taylor was given a severe fingerwagging, seemingly for an act of skulduggery off the ball.
A further exchange of penalty goals between Dominguez and Jarvis maintained the 14-point gap between the sides before Milan scored a merited, 40th-minute try through their hooker Alberto Marengoni, who was driven over between the posts. After Dominguez added the conversion points there was still time for Jarvis to coolly land another 30-metre penalty goal for a 23-13 half-time lead.
Still, Milan showed remarkable tenacity in the third quarter, contriving to put together a series of counter-attacks, one of which yielded a penalty near the left touch line which Domingue7 slotted home to reduce the deficit to 26-16.
Cardiff looked certain to score a third try when Howley hacked on from halfway, only to be pulled down a metre from the line before he could collect the ball. Minutes later Jarvis restored Cardiff's 19-point lead with a short penalty goal.
Eleven minutes from time the full-back Thomas raced away for Cardiff's over-due third try.
