MatchReports

Match Report 090906

Nelson 38 Croesyceiliog 8

Croesy suffered a disappointing 1st round exit in this Konica Minolta Cup tie against Division 3 opposition. As indicated in the team announcement there were a number of players not available for selection for various reasons.  Matters were made worse when No. 8 Steven Thomas was forced to cry off with an ear infection.  Having fielded 2 teams the week before we were now in a position of struggling to field 1. Had it not been for several players who would probably consider themselves 2nd teamers we would have had real problems in putting a side out.

 

Having said that I still believe we had a good enough side to have beaten Nelson if we had shown greater commitment.  We started well, winning lineouts with ease, having the upper hand in the scrums and having territorial superiority.  But this only lasted for the the first 10 minutes during which David Davies landed a penalty for Croesy.  Shortly after, the home side were awarded a penalty which they kicked into the corner and eventually drove over the line for a converted try. 

 

From there Nelson grew in confidence and our heads went down particularly in the pack.  Our scrum was disrupted by the wheeling tactics of the opposition which the referee picked up on once out of about 20 scrums throughout the game and we seemed to have no answer for it.  We were generally bullied out of the game and apart from one occasion when hooker Jamie Edwards tried to take the law into his own hands, for which he was yellow carded, we failed to front up to the intimidation. In fairness to Edwards, if we had acted as an 8, rather than him having to jump in on his own he would have stayed on the field.

 

We held the opposition out until shortly before half time when they broke through some weak defending to score a second converted try to lead 14-3 at the break.  A series of second half injuries disrupted any possibility we had of getting back into the game. First captain for the day Mark Smith was stretchered off with suspected concussion after a knee to the head, to be replaced by former youth player Carl Taylor making his senior debut for the club. Hooker Edwards was replaced by Gareth Cowens, scrum-half Ritchie Williams by another debutant Chris Wright who eventually scored Croesy's only try of the game with a useful blind-side break.  Prop Drew Barber was the third replacement to make his 1st team debut for the club.  We eventually conceded a further 4 second half tries.

 

It is difficult to say much positive about the performance but I must mention prop Ryan Thomas who was outstanding throughout.  Ryan is in his first year out of youth rugby having captained Pontypool United Youth last season playing in the back row.  He joined us during the summer, indicating that he wanted to switch to loose head. In the first game of the season he played in his more familiar blind-side role but on Saturday he was given his first chance at loose-head. Ryan gave everything in this game, he tackled, he carried the ball and he showed leadership qualities which were missing in players with far more experience.  I just hope what he has seen in the first two games doesn't demoralise him.  It is up to other players to come up to the level of commitment that he has shown already.

 

Behind the scrum the pick of the players was undoubtedly David Davies at full-back. He fielded everything that was kicked at him and was always looking to counter which he did with considerable success. Also in the backs there were senior debuts for outside-half Allyn Gore who looks a good prospect and wing Ben Cunningham, who stepped in to help us out after one training session. In the centre was last season's youth outside half Gavin Holmes, who had only previously made one appearance as a replacement at Mountain Ash last season. 

 

We can only say well done to the youngsters who stepped in, but we ended the game with just 4 players who could be considered first team regulars from last season. So we desperately need to get more experienced players back in as well as a greater commitment and a bit more dog about our performance.

 

The side was as follows:

 

1. Ryan Thomas
2. Jamie Edwards
3. Justin Smith
4. Mark Smith
5. Tom Price
6. Richard Gibbins
7. Lewis Heward
8. Andrew McDuff
9. Richard Williams
10. Allyn Gore
11. Ben Cunningham
12. Stuart Fitzgerald
13. Gavin Holmes
14. Will Hamilton
15. David Davies
16.  Gareth Cowens
17. Drew Barber
18. Carl Taylor
19. Chris Wright

Scorers: Try Chris Wright; Penalty David Davies