MatchReports

Match Report 020906

Croesyceiliog 7 Rumney 52

 

The league season got off to a disastrous start with a 52-7 thrashing at home to last season's fellow strugglers Rumney.  It is difficult to find many positives in what turned out ot be a pretty one-sided affair, but the coaches will have been encouraged by the commitment shown by all the players making their debuts for the senior side.  This included prop Gareth James and blind-side flanker Ryan Thomas both of whom have joined us from Pontypool United where they were playing youth team rugby last season. Thomas in particular was probably the pick of the Croesy players on show with his non-stop effort and willingness to take the ball to the opposition.  James did well in the tight and showed up around the field.  Also debuting were open-side flanker Lewis Heward, who battled gamely and last season's youth product Rhys Watkins playing on the left wing, who ran strongly with the few chances he had and showed his versatility when he switched to full-back to replace injured David Davies. The final new recruit to make it on the field was replacement No.8 Andrew McDuff.

 

To make matters worse, we suffered several injuries.  In addition to Davies, who was the victim of a late tackle which should have resulted in at least yellow card and instead only warranted a penalty in the ref's eyes, we also lost No.8 Jake Nash with an ankle injury and replacement hooker Anthony Axford and wing Watkins, both with shoulder injuries. 

 

We did manage a late consolation through a try from centre Scott Copsey and conversion from captain and outside half Matthew Entwistle but this must rate as our worst performance since coaches Chris Garrett and Andrew Peacock took charge a year ago. The one bright spot to give the coaches heart was that we achieved our aim of fielding a Second XV which came away with a 55-5 win at West Mon Old Boys.  There were reports of several useful performances including that of another debutant, outside half Allyn Gore who possesses a siege-gun boot as well as a crisp pass which gets the line going well.  Wing Tom Jones also did well to race in for two tries.  Unfortunately very few of the Second Team have turned up training yet and the club needs this attitude to change and now if we are going to recover from this set back for the first team.

 

The Teams for Saturday were:

 

1st XV

1. Gareth James
2. James Edwards
3. Justin Smith
4. Richard Gibbins
5. Mark Smith
6. Ryan Thomas
7. Lewis Heward
8. Jake Nash
9. Richard Williams
10. Matthew Entwistle (Capt.)
11. Rhys Watkins
12. Scott Copsey
13. Stewart Fitzgerald
14. John Misljen
15. David Davies
16. Anthony Axford (rep for Edward 40 mins)
17. Andre McDuff (rep for Nash 20 mins)
18. Chris Landry (rep for Davies 30 mins)
19. John Berrow (rep for Watkins 70 mins)

Scorers: S Copsey (T) M Entwistle (C)

 

Second XV

1. Drew Barber
2. Gareth Cowens
3. Darryl Thomas
4. Jim Sargeant (Capt.)
5. Chris Williams
6. Nathan Willis
7. Carl Taylor
8. Owen Morgan
9. Gavin Holmes
10. Allyn Gore
11. Tom Jones
12. Matthew Jones
13. Tom Curran
14. Liam Crowley
15. Richard Lewis
16. Nathan Marsh (rep for Matthew Jones)

Scorers to be confirmed