Dominant Cardiff Blues thrash Calvisano

A dominant display has seen Cardiff Blues seal a bonus-point 50-9 victory over Calvisano in their European Rugby Challenge Cup Pool 3 opener.

Blues have won just one of their first seven Pro 12 matches to start the current season, and they fell behind in Italy to an early Filippo Buscema penalty despite starting well and twice threatening to break downfield.

After an opening quarter of an hour of heavy forward battles, they edged up the field through a series of penalties and took advantage when last season's Challenge Cup top scorer Lloyd Williams marked his 100th game for Blues by going over in the corner.

That breakthrough saw a marked improvement in the Welsh side's flow, and a second score arrived when a slick backs move and Gavin Evans's penetrating run allowed Tom James to slide in and extend the advantage.

The sides traded penalties before the break but the visitors came out flying in the second half and added two more tries inside the first 10 minutes, as Gethin Jenkins drove the pack over the line in the corner before winger Dan Fish secured a bonus point by adding a fourth.

A third Buscema penalty briefly reduced the arrears for the Eccellenza champions, but Fish's replacement Blaine Scully capped a team move by scoring his first try for Blues after he was fed by Ellis Jenkins as his side increased their advantage.

Gavin Evans burst through to score a sixth and add some gloss to the scoreline, and Cardiff brought up the half-century in the final minute through a penalty try as the 2010 winners made a flying start to their European campaign.