Fixture

A few talking points for a very eventful game…..

With several key players out it was still really pleasing to put a very strong squad out to play the newly formed  St. Mary’s barbarians side, with the team looking to continue their unbeaten streak on a very cold morning. With Briden unavailable Sam Jenkins was installed as the captain for the day and whilst the coaches sorted out the admin, Sam took the boys for a warm up. When the coaches ran out onto the field they were faced with an extremely well organised team running through some structured drills on their own, again showing unbelievable maturity.

The warm up was the best to date and the team were pumped up ready for the kick off. From the off we exerted pressure on the opposition particularly at the breakdown and set piece but our accuracy wasn’t where it needed to be and we continued to drop the ball with the line at our mercy. With only 3 minutes on the clock, Sam Jenkins showed some incredible pace to score under the posts following some excellent ball retention and carrying by Jayden, Lloyd, Nathan and Taylor, Ben missed the conversion (0-5). With Kieran, Owen and Ieuan making some excellent breaks, the pace of the game was too much for the referee with him pulling a hamstring after 5 minutes and having to be replaced by a supporter! An enforced change due to an ankle injury for Nathan, meant the adaptable Steven Volau made his way on to pack down in the back row. Chepstow continued to attack but also continued to make mistakes at key points, however the forwards hit rucks very hard creating quick ball for Roman to get our backs firing, with some good handling from Ben and some excellent support play from Bobby, Sam was able to score again under the posts, which Ben converted, (0-12).  With the industrial Luke, Sam Always-Dean and Morgan providing an excellent source of ball at the breakdown, our backs had too much for the opposition with Kieran straightening nicely, space was created again for Sam to get his hatrick within the first 15 mins, however due to feeling really ill he had to be replaced and it was good to see Will Morgan returning after his 2 weeks absence, and looking very hungry for the ball and extremely sharp. Ben missed the conversion (0-17). With another enforced change due to a hand injury for Jayden, Haydn made his way on to the pitch to replace him and take up his position in the boiler house. With 5 players unavailable and Travis being to unwell to play, it was very pleasing to see that we still have more than enough players to deal with these issues. Lloyd had stepped into captain and was communicating very effectively with the whole team, Taylor was holding the defence again with his dummy runs and Roman was zipping the ball to Ben at pace, Kieran was choosing great angles of running and was rewarded with a try under the posts which Ben converted for a (0-24) lead. St Mary’s we not about to give up though and some very poor defence allowed their quick 10 to score under the posts which was converted to make the scores (7-24). The half time whistle went very early for what seemed a very short first half.

Half Time 7 – 24.

Owen made way for Steven at the break, and we talked at half time about ensuring we were a lot more accurate when attacking. With only 2 minutes on the clock in the second half the forwards were clearly on top and continued to make yardage with the offloading game proving very effective, Nathan who had shrugged off his ankle injury took the ball 20 yards out and there was no stopping him as he crashed over for the games 6^th try, with Ben missing the conversion. (7-29). Straight from the kick off Ben put the ball down into the right area with an excellent exit from our 22 and the defensive line came up to pressure the St. Mary’s full back, some excellent tackling from Will Morgan allowed the front 5 to turn the ball over, Roman fed Ben who fed Sam (who had returned to the field, replacing bobby) and offloaded to Lloyd who went through 5 tacklers to score, Ben missed the conversion making it (7-34).

Unfortunately from the kick off the game took a turn for the worse, with Macsyn (who was having his best game to date) being blindsided in the ribs by their big number 8, which Chepstow took exception too, with things boiling over, the stand in ref decided to abandoned the game with 15 minutes left on the clock. Thankfully Macsyn is all ok.

Final Score (7-34).

Things to be pleased about:

• Another debut - Haydn
• The team looking out for one another
• Strength in the squad

Things to work on:

• Claiming kick offs
• Accuracy in attack
• Defensive lapses

Man of the match: Lloyd Voaden