Fixture

Both sides were desperate to play this match after so many postponements through November and December caused by the heavy rain storms that have battered Britain. The referee, Ian Jones, had a good look at the pitch and after a chat with both coaches decided to play the match with floodlights on to help lift the gloom. 

What happened was a classic game of 2 halves. In the first half Sports monopolised possession and got into good areas through some shrewd kicking from the ten and then attacking through the back line and created at least 5 good opportunities which were halted by excellent scramble defence or handling errors. It seemed almost inevitable that they would score and sure enough they did through burly wing Tom James who ran strongly to break through four defenders and crash over just too far out for the conversion.

At half time Rhigos were well pleased to only be five points in arrear and Mark Harris called on them to take the game to Sports and not simply defend. And take the game to Sports Rhigos certainly did. Shrewdly guided by Sos Davies at ten Rhigos began to carry and drive the ball upfield and now it was our pack that laid seige to the Sports line with excellent work from James Lewis, Jon Smith, Davey Twin, Josh Richards and James Tobin. 

Matthew Khan, Darren Magee were also prominent as Gareth and Sos drew the best out of the pack. At last after bashing away with pick and drives Dan Dudley got over the line for a well deserved equalising score again too far out for conversion. Late on, we had a chance to win it with a penalty but the weather conditions proved too much for Brandon and the kick just failed.

So it was a draw and probably that was a fair result with Sports attacking so much in the first half and Rhigos attacking in the second each team in their different styles. During that first period the defence of Huw and Shaggy in the centre with the excellent back row had kept us in the game.

Mark was very pleased with the result which he claimed with some justification was due to the good team spirit and excellent fitness levels of the young players who kept focus on the job despite the heavy rain and cold wind.

Another big plus was that Dai Cowboy our First Aider was hardly seen in the game so no injuries which have weakened us this season. Dai Cowboy was the hero of last week's game with Banwen when he took took charge of the incident and looked after Banwen's Anthony Llewelyn who had seriously injured his leg causing the match to be abandonned.

Alltwen away next week, weather permitting and before that the opportunity to work hard on our fitness and team skills in 2 training sessions in the Sports Hall. Happy New Year