Fixture

What a way to round off a superb season with the boys putting on an amazing show of rugby for everyone at the stadium.

After a delay to the warm up due to one families poor time keeping, the boys were ready and pumped up for what was going to be a tough test against a good pill side. The team were adamant they were going to show what the final was missing and with no fewer than 24 players in the squad it was a great occasion for all.

As usual we spent a fair amount of time working on the kick offs in the warm up, only for it to all go out of the window again when the game started!

We were quickly in to our stride though and with our scrum being so solid thanks to the props Lloyd, Jayden, Luke and Lewis it allowed Briden to concentrate on winning every single scrum no matter who’s feed it was. This meant it was going to be a tough game for the opposition who were starved of possession. The pack went through the phases led by the barnstorming Will Supple, putting Pill under pressure and although there was a lot of white line fever, Kieran managed to offload to his centre partner Sam Jenkins to score under the posts for the first try of the game which Josh converted, (7 – 0). With Jayden  claiming the kick off and getting quickly into his stride, it took 4 players to get him down and with Sam and Morgan ensuring quick ruck ball, our backs started to put it through the hands, orchestrated excellently by Ben  who was putting runners into space. Stretching it left and then right, the defence had no answer to it and Josh crashed over for the 2^nd try which he also converted  (14-0). Unfortunately everyone was trying to get on the scoreboard now which resulted in the wrong decisions being made and the team spurning several try scoring chances, when if they had simply let the ball do the work we would have been even more tries ahead. The coaches spoke to the players and they listened and started working more as a team. With Ben clearing his lines by executing the exit move he put the ball deep into pills half with a huge kick. The chase was good, however a knock on resulted in a scrum to pill 5 metres out. Briden hooked against the head again allowing Will to pick up and charge over for the 3^rd try, which Josh converted (21-0). From the kick off Chepstow went the length of the field to score an amazing try, however with the linesman getting involved and highlighting apparent foul play, the play was brought all the way back to the 22 for a penalty to Chepstow after the Pill prop was deemed to have retaliated following a punch from our prop. Neither props knew anything about it of course. Going totally against the spirit of the day the ref produced a yellow card for each player.

Half Time - Chepstow 21 Pill Harriers 0

The coaches rung the changes at half time, with Joe Clough, Owen, Owain, Lewis, Will Morgan, Bobby, Luke, Roman and Macsyn all getting valuable game time throughout the game. The team were still focussed and raring to go in the second half. With pill on the attack, Sam managed to intercept to score under the post with Josh doing the unmentionable by missing the kick! (26-0). With Taylor providing an excellent source of ball at the lineout and Nathan, Will and Joe carrying strongly, the boys put together an excellent passage of play to release Owen down the left flank, showing his opposite number a clean pair of heels, he scored a brilliant team try, with Josh missing the conversion, (31-0). The coaches continued to rotate the squad with every single person adding quality to game. Roman started to fizz the ball to Ben putting him on the front foot and unleashing Will, Ieuan, Steven and Owain, the defence had no answer to it. The boys were in full flow now and Briden beat half of the opposite team to score another try which Josh converted, (43-0). Pills discipline started to let them down and some excellent strong running from Morgan, Macsyn, Lloyd and Jayden produced another penalty 5m from the line, which Nathan tapped quickly and smashed  his way over with Josh  converting to make it (50-0) and resulting in the game being blown up some 10 minutes early. Outstanding performance.

Man of the match: Ben Hope-bell

I would like to say a huge thanks to all the parents for their support this year, you have helped make it an amazing season, I look forward to seeing you all again when I resurface from hiding after the summer!

Have a great summer, and hopefully all the boys have recovered from their knocks yesterday.

An email will go out in the coming weeks to detail the summer training plans.

Matt.