Fixture

Last night after training we sat down with Emori and Tim and watched the film "Rhigos 17 Pontycymer 9". I enjoyed it better than the game itself to be honest. Well my eyes are not the best and I watched the game from the top corner so all our pressure in the second half was a bit of a blur. But I sat in the front seat for the film and it was magic.

In the film we seemed to have more players than them I thought at first it was our scary yellow kit kind of standing out but then I realised it was because we had some players who played twice. For instance, there must have been 2 Camerons because i man could never have made all those tackles. There were 2 Dylans - 1 missed all the kicks and the other scored a try, tackled almost as many as the Camerons and ran the game quite well. James Lewis and Tecki were interchangeable. Nobody knew which was which. Skin heads seemed to be everywhere like wrecking balls. 

But on the day the first half saw us on the defensive for long periods while Pontycymer battered away at us but did not really cause too many problems though their 10 had a good kicking game that constantly pegged us back and their 12 was a threat with his goalkicking. He was successful with 2 long range kicks to give the visitors a 6-0 lead at half time which they deserved.

The second half though was a different story. Pontycymer slowly ran out of steam as the non stop tackling from our whole team really but particularly Cameron, James, Tecki, Dylan and Shane knocked them down. Their physio was on and off the field a lot and their lack of match fitness began to tell.

We laid seige to their goal line and it was only a matter of time before James Lewis went over for the first try. Dylan missed the kick but made up for it 5 minutes later when a series of drives set up Shane who put Dylan in for a try under the posts. Unfortunately he failed with the conversion. But Rhigos were in front by 10 points to 6.

The third try that put the game to bed was cleverly worked from deep when Kyle gathered a loose kick and cut infield where he found Alain in support. Alain broke clean through and found Davey Twin who passed to Shane who ran a great angle to score again under the posts. Shane converted his own try and the game was won.

Pontycymer did come back up field for the 12 to kick another penalty but that was that. The supporters naturally wanted more - another try and a bonus point but it was not to be. Emori, Dan and Greg would have been happier with 5 points but were pleased to take 4. At the end of the day the Rhigos scrum was solid and workmanlike and the lineout too was very effective and this gave a good supply of first phase possession to Lewis and Dylan so there was a lot to be pleased about at the start of a long season.

Next week Pontyates away. I can't wait for the game on Saturday then the film on Tuesday to find out what really happened