Fixture

Sunday morning had great weather conditions if you happened to be a duck! It was a wonder there was any rain left with the amount that had fallen overnight and the U16s game succumbed early on. However, playing away against Pontypridd meant the game was on 3G and therefore weather proof.

There were a few late drop outs meaning a limited squad made the trip to Sardis Road’s House of Pain. The stadium is quite imposing and the boys looked a little nervous as they assembled into the changing rooms. Gradually they got up to speed through the warm-up and they started to find their voice. They started the game with a bang with some surging runs from the forwards and great passing out of contact sucked in the Pontypridd defence, good awareness and slick hands set Steven Volau free down the left wing to open the scoring within 2 minutes, 5-0.  With such a good start there was potential for the home team to be a little shell shocked, not a chance though. From the restart they remained camped in their attacking half with Chepstow under wave after wave of pressure.

In wet conditions the ball was slippery and there were a number of handling errors from both sides leading to a series of scrums. The Chepstow scrum was creaking making clear exit opportunities relatively difficult. However, several opportunities to kick long were spurned as the boys got caught up trying to re-create the opening try of the game. All of Chepstow’s players featured strongly: Lloyd & Morgan Voaden’s and Sam’s tackling was destructive, Nathan and Briden carried really well, Macsyn and Joe Clough secured the breakdowns, Taylor was a nuisance at the lineout. Travis made some surging runs and tackled well and Ben orchestrated Kieran and Will Morgan to run good angles in difficult conditions. The back 3 of Ieuan, Josh & Steven fielded the kicks in difficult conditions really well and made good yards. 

So, everyone was performing but it was all as a rear-guard action, under heavy territorial pressure. The defensive effort was huge and number of the Pontypridd players were clearly struggling with the physicality with a number of stoppages. The inevitable sucker punch then came as we finally turned over ball and created space to attack from our own half, going 60 metres with fantastic interpassing and support play for Briden to plunder over and take us more than one score ahead, 10-0. Luke & an U14 call up, Josh Strong came on and both made a good early impact.

As half-time approached Pontypridd final broke into the 5 metre zone and, despite great tackling around the fringes, they eventually squeezed over the line, 10-5 at half-time.

At half-time we discussed the fact that territorially we were being dominated and that we need to think far more about where we needed to play our rugby, we also talked about creating abetter platform for the backs to receive quicker ball. Some of the message got through as the second half started but it seemed the message to kick more got translated into kick as soon as the ball comes near you! A couple of really rushed mis-kicks before the ball was even under control led to a bizarre couple of minutes where we just heaped more pressure on ourselves.

But still our physicality kept raining down on the opposition through aggressive tackling and counter rucking. Will, Josh and Ben all managed to find some of their kicking capability and we played a little more in the opposition half. Conditions were deteriorating, with lots of knock-ons in very slippery conditions, meaning both sides attacking forays were breaking down with few true scoring opportunities. A number of Pontypridd players left the field injured and the game went down to 14 a side as all substitutes were used. Being within one score was very nervy but Briden put the game to bed with his 2^nd try, 15-5. Eventually the final whistle went and both sides shook hands having earned each other’s respect.

Things to be pleased about

Physicality

Scramble defence when they did break the line was excellent, a number were always will to track back

The interplay that led to the 3 tries was exceptional

Things to work on

Scrum did not work well at all

Too many avoidable penalties

Game management – particularly tactical kick and chase

On we go……