Fixture

They continue to amaze! And what a game of rugby both sides put on for the significant support.

What a performance by the under 14’s, who welcomed Cleve the Gloucester champions to ‘our patch’ to see if we could go up another level, and what was most pleasing is that we didn’t even play our best rugby and yet still had too much for an excellent, well organised Cleve side.

It would be nice to say the boys were all at the club early, looking totally professional and raring to go, however with less than half hour until kick off I was still waiting for my team to show up, Cleve on the other hand had been warming up for an hour already and looked very much up for it! With a continued lack of game practice in training in the week due to the pitch being out of bounds, we had a quick run through of our structures and lineouts before the game which I decided to cut short as I must say it was the worst warm up to date and I felt that it was only building the confidence in the on looking Cleve team. So we headed to the changing rooms early to tuck into the pre-match goodies! The coaches were clearly worried after the preparation, so set out with an early game plan of pure disruption at the breakdown and set piece which would prevent their half backs from running the game. We instructed all 8 forwards to hit every ruck in the first 15 minutes with sheer aggression and commitment.

The boys were lined up ready to go, waiting only for the ref to eventually turn up. From the off we exerted unbelievable pressure on Cleve at the set piece and breakdown through Jayden, Lloyd, Briden and Sam Alway-Dean, we turned over ball after ball, however with a little too much conviction at one breakdown we were penalised which allowed the Cleve outside half to put the ball down into our 5 metre area. With Chepstow having to adopt the England rules at the lineout meaning they were uncontested and no lifting (good job we practiced lineouts before the game!!!), Cleves big forwards constructed a driving lineout for their big prop to crash over for their first try, unfortunately our Captain broke his nose in the process of trying to tackle him (stray boot from his team mate), with the conversion missed (0-5).

An enforced change meaning Luke came on with the ever adaptable Morgan stepping up into the Hooker position. The team showed unbelievable maturity, not allowing their heads to drop and put phase after phase of rugby together to put increased pressure on the Cleve line, with only some sloppy handling or failing to keep hold of the ball meaning we blew 5 or 6 clear try scoring opportunities which kept Cleve in the game. Chepstow continued to pressure the Cleve line with Owen going very close to an outstanding try only to be tackled just short and unfortunately we also continued to drop the ball with the line at our mercy, allowing their 10, who was given way too much time to clear the line time and time again. The pressure eventually turned into a try for Chepstow with excellent build up play from Nathan and Taylor and a good source of ball provided from Morgan and Luke hitting the rucks, our backs started to fire, with Travis Feeding Ben who was pulling the strings at 10, and with some straight hard running from Kieran at 12, it allowed the exceptional Sam Jenkins to go over for Chepstow’s first try, Josh missed the conversion to make it (5-5).

Half Time 5 – 5.

Travis made way for Roman at the break, Ieuan went on instead of Steven, and we talked at half time about ensuring we concentrated more on controlling the ball in contact as Cleve were only still in the game due to our mistakes. Cleve showed excellent handling skills in the backs but our drift defence was working very well and there was some crunching tackles from Kieran, Sam, Nathan and Will, which meant we continued to turn defence into attack and turn over the ball allowing us to counter. Unfortunately due to some inaccuracies we allowed Cleve to continue to clear their lines, however their outside half continued to pick out the outstanding Josh Morgan who returned every kick with interest through some of the best running we have seen from him, he was an absolute rock at 15 and what was excellent to see was how the rest of the team supported him allowing him to offload and continue with the attack. We went through phase after phase with the forwards smashing it up through the Rhino ball, which sucked in the defence, allowing Lloyd to score near the posts with Josh converting (12-5). We made more changes with Joe Clough replacing Luke and Rhys replacing Owen on the wing demonstrating the strength in depth this squad now has. Chepstow’s lead was well deserved, however the team did the absolutely unthinkable from the kick off, allowing a mediocre kick to bounce in front of them which their winger caught and went past virtually the whole team to score under the posts which was also converted (12-12), a quick chat behind the posts pointing out that we had just worked incredibly hard for our try and gifted them theirs seemed to result in a step up in effort and concentration.  Cleve really had no response to Chepstow’s work at the breakdown and the pace out wide, with the backs handling now working really well we stretched the defence from side to side, really varying the play, with Kieran straightening things up at 12 and everyone looking for the offload, the pressure was starting to show. Ieuan finished off one of the tries of the season (much to his mums delight), the forwards created excellent quick ball with Roman firing a pass out to Ben on the move and with dummy runner Taylor keeping the defence honest, Kieran fed Nathan who sucked in a few defenders, off loaded to Sam who beat another few before releasing Ieuan who showed a great turn of speed to score in the corner. The tricky conversion was missed (17-12). Chepstow were on fire now, with Will Supple causing havoc with his powerful running and Joe, Taylor, Jayden and Morgan hitting rucks allowing Nathan to pop up in the backs to take out defenders and release our outside backs. Sam Jenkins found himself in space, rounding a few defenders and showing great skill to chip the full back and score near the posts for an excellent try which Josh converted (24-12). With only a couple of minutes on the clock Chepstow seemed to be home clear, however Cleve were not finished and showed great fitness levels and skill to create a very well worked try against an incredibly tired Chepstow defence who were literally running on fumes at this point, the conversion was missed making it (24-17).

The ref blew the final whistle!, the team had worked so hard for their victory with the whole squad ecstatic over the win against the Gloucester champions.

Special thanks to Macsyn and Bobby for being so grown up when not getting any game time, and showing great maturity in their response, both saying it’s about the team winning.

Things to be pleased about:

• Beating the Gloucester champions! Even though we didn’t play to the best of our ability
• Work at the breakdown was excellent
• The Scrum and defence
•  Strength in the squad

Things to work on:

•  Exit strategies
• Turning possession into points and controlling the ball in attack
• Keeping our shape with no defensive  lapses even when shattered

Man of the match: Whole team