As the huffing and the puffing of the autumn internationals blow themselves out in the haze of the past few weeks, we frostily creep into the wintry environment of league rugby, cold, hard and unforgiving (and the weather pretty similar to). Yesterday our Centurions headed back up the valley to face off with the Mighty Oaks of Oakdale RFC. Handily placed fourth in our division, another tough game was afoot. In a game of two halves, one, 2 degrees above zero and the second, 10 degrees below the only thing warm in my possession was my smouldering pen as I attempted to keep up with the blistering pace of rugby that went on on the field (with various degrees of success). Weather cold rugby very hot indeed. The team started with Nathen, Pork Chop and Eddy Grant, Bambi, Evan, Duly, Nobby and Mitch. Backs = Huw, Morgan, Steve Taylor, Chris Macey (Cap) Dai Burgess and Tom Richards (I think someone called him Rusty you know) with Titch at full back. On the bench was MLud Rostron, Mikey Pan (Eggy), John Burgess (back from injury) Dutch Elm, Remco Man and new lad (but old head) Adam Break. So, on the field things started as most games have this season with the opposition in the ascendancy, our defence being tested to the max and a flurry of penalties against us. Two in the first 10 minutes were goal attempts, the first, advanced for choppsing, went wide but the second was nailed so we were 3-0 down after 10 mins. Still mostly dominating, Oakdale won a line out around the half way line but the outhalf fumbled under the advancing defence. The ball was hacked through my Morgan and then by Titch (or visa versa) and Dai B beat the retreating Oaks to touch down in the corner, A try for our defence me thinks. No conversion so we were 3-5 up for 2 minutes because continuing transgressions led to another easy penalty to give Oak the lead back at 6-5. Now Caeleon started to play and were attacking at will (Who’s Will)? Nathen Charged down a clearance that didnt quite bounce our way and the line was cleared. In another attack Huw got injured and stayed down a while. It was then I noticed a Buzzard circling overhead, confirming my long held belief that Huw resembles “road-kill” if he lies still long enough. On the half hour Titch missed a pen, but the drop out was half charged down by Bambi and the ball looped to Rusty Richards. He attacked hard and several great phases of play by backs an forwards gave Stevie T a chance to show his strength. The ball came back inside to Titch and there were several more phases of keep ball left and right, Porky beating a man and giving the scoring pass to S T who crashed over. Titch slotted the 2 so we were now up 6-12. The boys were now playing scintillating attacking rugby, especially on the counter. 37 mins in and we were awarded a pen for their prop standing up in the scrum, Huw tapped, fed Dully who bashed it up and fed Macey who twisted and handed off in his inimitable way feeding Berggie who took it to the five for Taylor to do the rest. Titch converted and we were up 6-19. The theme continued with sound defence and counter attack, from a scrum Chris chips the defence and outstrips them only to knock on in the attempt to pick up and score. Hard luck mate! On the stroke of the half a very promising attack was stopped by a try saving interception resulting a 5 metre line out to Caerleon. It was won well by Bambi and delivered in the bread basket to Huw who took on the pack and came out a winner with a five pointer and the bonus point try. No conversion, but what a twenty minutes of rugby, one of the best this season, Caerleon were 6-24 up, bonus point sealed, playing like demons and seemingly cruising to an away victory,. . HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS coz that was not the case my friends. New lad Break came on for Bambi. Now playing towards the Hot dog van, Oakdale must have had a heated team talk and Caerleon came off the boil coz they were frantic in attack and showing great inter-passing and attacking play, rewarded by a quick try with no conversion, followed by another in the opposite corner again, no conversion and the lead was cut to 16 -24 in 10 minutes of the second half. From the kick off Caerleon got back in the swing of it with attacks by Stevie T and Porky who copped a high one for Titch to slot a pen to increase the lead to 16 – 27. I could hardly look up from my scribbling as the action was non stop. New lad knocked on in the tackle and someone played the ball off side. A quick tap and go led to a big overlap and, low and behold, Oakdale scored their third unconverted try of the half and the score was now 21-27 and a nervous supporting group behind the posts were getting tetchy, Nobby D shouting at Wiffer (Now known as “Robbo Coach”) about bad refing and poor decision making. 20 minutes still to go and Oakdale created a massive overlap and only a bad scoring pass to the unmarked right wing stopped Oakdale gaining the lead. With this and three missed conversions Caerleon were lucky to still be leading, the most destructive 20 minutes an opposition has played against Caerleon this season, but I couldnt see why. To make it even worse Titch got yellow carded for a ruck offence and Caerleon were down to 14, fifteen minutes to go and under pressure. Caerleon, seemingly stung into action, put together some good phases of play with new lad and Evan making good ground. A maul on the try line after two quick taps and go by Huw saw Porky twisting himself over the line, only to spill it under a couple of defenders attention. The next phase of attacking play looked promising but the big Oakdale second row curtailed it with a big deliberate German band on got himself a yellow card for his troubles. Morgan stepped up to the plate and slotted a difficult penalty to ease our worries some what and increase the lead by more than a score to 21-30. Oakdale had a great chance to pull the three back soon after but the pen was badly missed to boost our confidence we could hang on for a win. There was less than five minutes to go and Caerleon were playing keep ball as best they could. Some brilliant skill by skipper Chris Macey when he fell on a loose ball surrounded by flailing feet and was down and up in one movement was the catalyst to a team effort for a try to seal the game. Forwards took the ball up to ten meters from the line under the posts, the ball went left and into the hands of S T, he couldnt quite seal it. Rusty had a go as well but there was a slight knock on, however, the ref had been playing a long advantage from the ruck under the sticks. The simple pen was taken and the last couple of minutes faded out with John Burgess on the attack to kill the game and a hard fought 21-33 win. Well, I was cold and mentally drained after that roller-coaster. Caerleon played well enough for about 25 minutes to win this one, but concerns must be raised over the rest of the game. Oakdale must be given credit for their efforts, fair enough, but Where were Caerleon during a large part of the game. Im sure the back-room staff will address this in the week. I think my MOTM should go to Captain Chris Macey for a great all round game and keeping the team together when they were under the cosh.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 19:45:33 +0000
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