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22 October 2018 / Club News

Match Report: Pontardawe Vs Pontyates

 

This fixture last year was a disaster for the Cherries when they destroyed themselves through ill discipline and bad tactics, losing a game they should have won with ease. What a contrast then with now, then we quarrelled now we encourage, then we kicked possession away fruitlessly now we play 15 man rugby and go after bonus points. Its really good to watch and must be even better to be  playing . 

 

This was a great day to watch rugby being dry, warm and occasionally sunny. Both sides were; from a current league position, evenly matched. The Cherries kicked off playing towards the canal and had some early chances with a missed penalty attempt from Calum and from a Pontyates throw in” a nice steal from Norm saw the play move up the field with some nice pick and goes and a lovely break by Calum taking the ball to within a couple of meters of the try line. Good defending by the visitors kept the Cherries out. The first score came 15 minutes into the game when Calum slotted a penalty from 20 metres out. The game was really nip and tuck” with both sides doing OK perhaps though the Cherries doing slightly better.

 

Early in the second quarter Norm was yellow carded for a try saving high tackle of the Pontyates winger, into touch  There were calls from the visiting supporters for the Referee Dave Thomas from Newport to award a penalty try, which thankfully he didnt. Norm was joined in the sin bin just two minutes later by the Pontyates No 8 ( who supporters were saying was their best player) which thankfully negated the one man advantage they were enjoying. In some good broken play The Cherries took the ball to within metres of the Ponyates try line and from this position Mike Hanson was able to use his upper body strength to power his way over for a good try in the right hand corner. Which was to be converted by Calum from the touchline. 10-0

Minutes later a penalty kick attempt by Calum saw one of the touch line judges flag raised but not the other. 

Aeron Davies playing at 10 put in a good kick down the field which Sam Edwards raced after and managed to charge down the defenders attempt to kick the ball back, allowing the Cherries to continue to apply pressure. After both sin binners returned to the field a quickly taken penalty by the Pontyates scrum half, in the centre of the field, saw his pass put away their No 10 for a 40 metre run in under the posts which was easily converted. 10 -7 

More or less the last play of the half saw Calum playing at full back pick up and begin one of trade marks runs, this time choosing to chip over the approaching attackers, one of whom shoulder barged Calum as he was passing and was penalised. From a long distance Calum slotted the penalty and the score at half time was 13 - 7 to the home team. 

 

The first half was fairly evenly contested with the Cherries doing well in the scrummages with good understanding between Tom at scrum half and No 8. More than holding our own in the line-outs with one or two noticeable steals. 

 

Pontyates restarted the game in the second half and through power play and offloading resulted in a well worked try under the posts which when converted took Pontyates into the lead for the first time in the match. The game settled down for few minutes after which some good choices, offload and power saw the Cherries pressurising the vistors back wards and defending their try line. Such was the pressure being applied that they decided to turn down a relatively straight forward penalty to regain the lead and opt instead to kick for the corner. Needless to say and as usual this got the home supporters blethering away as to whether this was the right decision. From the resulting line out a scrum was awarded in our favour, from which Richard Greig picked up the ball and charge for the line.  Good defending thwarted his efforts by holding him up but yet again the upper body strength of Mike Hanson came into play as he ripped the ball out of the maul to dive and burrow his was over the line for his second try, which Calum converted. 20- 14.

 

Only minutes later a nice break Calum down the left hand touchline saw his pass put Mike Hodges away to run 30 metre for a really well worked try, which went converted. 27-14. The game then really calmed down for these last two tries gave The Cherries loads of confidence and lots of open rugby was being played.  A few more line-outs were stolen which ensured a plentiful supply of good procession. 

 

Five minutes into the final quarter, again in open and running rugby Mike Hodges placed a grubber kick through which he and San Benyon raced after, with the latter winning the race and scoring yet another nice try, which wasnt converted but ensured us the win. That said there was still some 10 minutes of time left to play, plus whatever the Ref was going to add which turned out to be 8 minutes. To be fair to Pontyates, they played with vigour throughout this time and Pontardawe had to keep up the hard work to thwart them. A consistent period of well worked procession saw the visitors be rewarded with a good try which they converted. So the final score was to be 32-21 and a bonus point win for the Club. 

 

There is a good ambience in this team, its nice to be around them. We look forward to next Saturday when we play at home to Cwmtwrch. 

Sponsors Man Of the Match Joe Mort

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