Mountain Ash 39 Croesyceiliog 7
8 April 2006
Where do I start reporting on that game? Probably by saying I think the second half performance by Croesy was one of the worst I have ever seen by the club. You could be forgiven for thinking that it was Croesy who were secure in mid table with nothing to play for for the rest of the season and Mountain Ash were the team who were fighting for survival in Division 2 instead of it being the other way round. Because there was no fight in our side. Many more performances like that and we will go down, no doubt about it.
At half-time no one would have expected the complete second half capitulation that we witnessed because although we were 17-7 down we had just played into an absolute gale and had shown enough to suggest that we would wipe the opposition away in the second half. Admittedly we had given away 2 soft early tries but we had out-scrummaged the home side and driven them back several times when they had attempted driving mauls. "Divvy" Davies had latched onto a wayward pass to score a length of the field interception try which Matthew Entwistle had converted and we had pressed on their line for long periods before conceding a soft try on half-time.
Then we turned around with the wind and played the most embarrassing 40 minutes of rugby I can remember us playing. Admittedly we lost Bobby Pike to injury in the first half and then Matthew Entwistle after the break which meant we had three youth players on the field. But there is absolutely no criticism of the youth boys who stepped in. It is senior players who have to put their hand up and be counted. We are far better than we showed ourselves to be on Saturday and the players need to start believing that. We've now got 4 games left, all against teams who are beatable if our attitude is right. But equally if we play like we did on Saturday we are just likely to lose them all. Come on boys, lets see a bit of fight in you!!
The only positive for the club was the appearance of the youth team players; Ieuan Wakefield, making his first senior start at scrum-half after coming on as a replacement against Bargoed on Wednesday; a second substitute appearance for Tom Price on the flank; and a first senior appearance for outside-half Gavin Holmes. That brings to 5 the number of youth team players who have played first team rugby this season. I can't remember the club using so many youth players in one season and this pays testament to the club's development policy and the work of everyone involved with the youth and junior set up.
On Saturday we face Tredegar in another must win game. We are still 9 points away from the relegation zone but Brynithel who are second from bottom have three games in hand over us and a better points ratio. So they can catch us. Lets hope the attitude is more like when we beat Abercynon at home a couple of months ago.