Croesyceiliog 12 Pill Harriers 24
17 September 2005
Croesy suffered a disappointing defeat in their first home game of the season against newly promoted Pill Harriers. The Cockerels were forced to call on the services of former youth team captain Gavin Wheatstone who has been out of the game for over a year at hooker and with young Gareth Cowans alongside him they made up two-thirds of a very young and inexperienced front row. The youngsters had a torrid time with the scrum constantly going backwards. But to their credit they never gave up.
First-half injuries to outside-half Gareth Roberts and openside flanker Bobby Pike disrupted the side and they struggled to gain parity for long periods. Pill in contrast opened strongly and by mid way through the first half were 12-0 up through 2 tries one of which was converted. Croesy fought back towards the end of the first -half and were rewarded for their pressure with a try wide out for debutant wing Matthew Hiatt.
The Cockerels continued to press after the break and powerful centre Scott Copsey on as a replacement for Roberts burst over new the posts for a try which Matthew Entwistle converted to level the score. From there on Pill stepped up the pressure particularly in the scrum but also in other phasets of the game and it was no surprise when they went back into the lead with a try on 70 minutes. The final 10 minutes was all Pill but in fairness to the Croesy defence they only conceded one further try for a final score of 12-24.
One of the few plus points was the form of Nathan Powell at scrum-half who behind a beaten pack still managed to get the better of his opposite number and worked tirelessly throughout.