News

West Mon 26  Cwmcarn 10

 

On another blustery wet day in NP4, with the old Cynthia Payne coming down harder than a stale McDonald's burger bun; Cwmcarn faced a West Mon side who were on pretty good form, based on recent results. Having seen Carn's score from the previous week, they would have been targeting this game as an easy bonus point win: Thankfully Carn were in the mood to salvage some pride.

The strong swirling wind & cold rain lashing down, were not exactly conducive to free-flowing rugby, but no-one told the teams that, as both tried to keep the ball in hand - Needless to say there were a few knock-ons. This played into Cwmcarn's hands & after being shunted back in the first few scrums; Carn's multi-tasking, interchangeable front five, switched things around & then it was West Mon spending the rest of the game with the pack in reverse gear.

Carn opened the scoring with Dan Evans kicking a nice penalty in heavy wind. West Mon saw this as a wake up call & scored a well taken converted try shortly after. Their nifty backs & speedy back row were creating quite a few chances. Thankfully Cwmcarn (ably abetted by the prevailing wind & rain) were able to repel most of them.

At half time Carn were 14-3 down. Unfortunately, the elements, which favoured West Mon in the first half, decided to blow straight across the middle of the park for much of the second. It was not a day to be a winger, as Josh looked like a undernourished rescue dog for much of the match, shivering & shaking whilst waiting for the ball to get to him.

West Mon scored two more tries (converting one) in the second half, which was pretty much against the run of play. Their line out performed well in poor conditions, but Carn were able to disrupt the scrum ball. Desperate to score a try, Carn kept it in the forwards and after several phases of play, with Housey & Jabba trying to out-macho each other with tap penalty crash ball. This eventually led to a well deserved try for hard working flanker Reuben. This was pretty much the end of the game & time for a few sherbets in the clubhouse

STAND OUT PLAYER/S

The Front Five en masse

Reuben - Cwmcarn's very own Duracell bunny

Special mention goes to Tom Simmonds, who had his best game for Carn, whilst managing to control that angry gene

 

David Richards
rothrock1@aol.com