Fixture

This has been the hardest report to write to date, and that’s why it is so late.

So this was really a game of 2 halves, decided by some extremely dubious refereeing decisions and a below par second half. I will say the boys really put their bodies on the line and gave it their all though.

The boys were all at the club early, looking totally professional and raring to go. We focussed on doing everything as a team, staying together and focussing on the game and game plan. Losing the toss we played with slope, this turned out to be a huge factor in the result of the game.

The boys were lined up ready to go and the game commenced with Ben starting proceedings. The defence was ferocious with Cwmbran throwing everything at us and getting nowhere. Chepstow were soon on the attack causing Cwmbran all kinds of issues and going close a number of times, only to be penalised time and time again at the breakdown. With ball in hand Ben threaded through a lovely kick for Steven to chase and as soon as their winger gathered he hit him with everything in a nasty looking collision. The ref played on and after a few phases the ball got to Taylor 2 yards from the line and unopposed to score the first try…..  However as he was putting the ball down the ref decided at that point to blow up for the injury, first try of the half disallowed. The player went off to a round of applause and Chepstow had the head and feed at the scrum. Going through the phases and with Nathan providing go forward with Briden crashing over for the first try, with Josh’s excellent effort from the touchline just going wide.

Chepstow took the kick off and went on the attack again, the ball turned over though and Cwmbran went on the attack, the excellent defence forcing them into touch on half way. With a move straight from the training paddock being executed it put Sam through for what should have been the 3^rd try of the game, only for the ref to again penalise us for no reason giving Cwmbran a penalty on half way and relieving the pressure for them. With Chepstow executing the game plan at ruck time, it resulted in slow ball for the opposition, however we were penalised time and time again relieving the pressure. With another excellent kick through from Ben and with the full back fumbling the ball, Will Supple picked the ball up and ran clear to the line for what should have been the 4^th  try of the game……. However play was called back yet again for a knock on against us, the boys were clearly becoming increasingly frustrated by the refs interpretation of the game. The backs were also unable to attack effectively due to the interpretation of the offside line. We did however manage to cross for another try through Will with Josh hitting the post from the touchline with an excellent attempt.  Was it to be our day???

Half Time 0 – 10.

No substitutions were made at half time and every single player was comfortable with this. We talked about it being 0 – 0 and also how much the slope would feed into the result of the game if we didn’t manage it correctly. We also spoke about needing to start the second half well. However with a scrum in our 22, Nathan burst off the back and when tackled passed to what he thought would be his supporting player, except their outside half read it well to intercept and go under the posts, also converting to make it (7-10). Their tails were well and truly up now. With the interpretation continuing, Chepstow were penalised at every breakdown and this allowed their excellent outside half to pin us down in the corners and utilise their brilliant catch and drive lineout which we just couldn’t stop. We had plenty of opportunities to score in the second half however several players chose to go on their own when they had men in space outside them, we need to work on this and let the ball do the work. We could have still easily won this game, but the Cwmbran game plan was extremely effective and executed very well, helped by the penalty count being significantly against us. Cwmbran continued to kick to the bottom left corner and operating their catch and drive scored another 2 tries which were both converted making it 21-10 and effectively putting the game out of reach. This is did not put the boys off who continued to hit very hard in defence with a huge hit being put in by Nathan and some big hits up front by Lloyd and Will. We had plenty of possession but a lack of accuracy meant we kept turning the ball over which allowed them to kick and force us to run the ball back. On one of our final attacks Sam Jenkins went agonisingly close but just couldn’t reach the line.

With another penalty being given, their 10 put the ball right in the corner for another catch and drive which resulted in a penalty try, and to be fair they would have definitely scored even if it was a first offence so no argument with that one.

Missed opportunity, we will play them again and will win the next one.

Final Score 28-10

Things to be pleased about:

• Commitment
• Defence
• The lineout on our ball
• Certain facets of attacking play

Things to work on:

• Defending the driving lineout
• Letting the ball do the work and putting people into space/Handling
• Scrummaging
• Support play

Man of the match: Steven Volau

Heads up and on to tour and the 3^rd place play off against Pill who we owe!

Also a big thanks to those of you who didn’t get much game time, so of which didn’t get any, these will be prioritised for the next game.