O'Shea was delighted with his side

LV= Cup: Cardiff Blues 45 Harlequins 40

A Ross Chisholm try on the stroke of full time was not enough to steal victory in a 12-try spectacular against Cardiff Blues in the LV= Cup on Sunday.

Blues came away with a closely fought victory at the Cardiff City stadium as the visiting Harlequins caused havoc against a far more experienced side.

The Londoners dominated from the outset with newly appointed England scrum half Karl Dickson commanding his troops into the Cardiff 22.

The first try fell into the hands of Chris York who was able to cross the line unopposed thanks to the hard work of George Lowe at the breakdown.

Ben Blair responded with a penalty to give the hosts their first points.

But it was Quins who scored again courtesy of winger Seb Stegmann while fly half Rory Clegg slotted his second conversion of the night to make it 14-3.

Cardiff were able to show their experience and maturity by bouncing back with a staggering three tries in 12 minutes, Welsh international Tom James, claiming two of them.

The resulting three conversions saw a half time score of 24-14.

The second half got off to a fantastic start with some champagne rugby from both sides.

However, it was James who was able to round it off as he claimed his hat trick to lengthen the Blues score helped along by Blair for a 31-14 lead.

It looked as though Cardiff were home and dry until Quins refused to give in, scoring two fantastic converted tries in just three minutes to take the score to 31-28 after 53 minutes.

A quiet period of the game built up to an exciting climax as Cardiff second row Macauley Cook went in for a try followed by James who took his fourth of the night.

Blair’s conversions took the score to 45-28 but Quins meanwhile were not done.

A last-minute fightback saw Stegmann score his second try of the night followed by a Chisholm turn over try.

But it was agonisingly not quite enough for the visitors who were just edged out.

Scores

Cardiff: 45

Tries: Tom James (22, 38, 47, 69) Hamilton (30) Macauley Cook (66)

Conv: Ben Blair (23, 32, 39, 47, 66, 71)

Pen: Ben Blair (11)

Harlequins: 40

Tries: Chris York (6) Seb Stegmann (20, 77) Sam Smith (50) Ross Chishom (52, 81)

Conv: Rory Clegg (6, 21, 51, 53), Benjamin Urdapilleta (78)

Pen: None