Judgement Day 2

Far more important than the goings-on at the Millennium Stadium was what was taking place at Pontypool Park. After last week's surprise victory at Llanharan, we wanted to judge whether Pooler had actually turned the corner and could make it two in a row. Bonymaen were the visitors and they were only a couple of places above Pontypool in the Championship although the gap in terms of points was huge. Still with home advantage this was a good test to judge Pooler's progress.
The early signs were not encouraging as the Bonymaen scrum looked dominant and scrummage pressure led to an early unconverted try for the visitors. Pooler managed to shore up their scrum and the contest became more even with both sides keen to throw the ball about with gay abandon. The trouble was that this led to high error count for both sides with knock-ons and forward passes abounding. The home side scored a good try when Goodman galloped over from 20 yards after some good combined play and the conversion took Pooler into the lead. Bonymaen quickly hit back with another unconverted try to retake the lead. A Pontypool penalty left the score at 10-10 at halftime and it was truly anybody's game.
The second half was frenetic and error strewn with neither side managing to sustain any kind of dominance and the result was in doubt until the final whistle. Bonymaen scored a try when right wing Joseph scurried up the touch line. Cunliffe converted expertly from the touchline. Pooler replied with a penalty and an unconverted try by Cook to take a narrow lead at 18-17. This was quickly reversed when Bonymaen were awarded a peanlty virtually from the restart to make the score 18-20. Time was running out and the Pooler faithful feared the worst. The home side presses and missed a kick at goal that would have retken the lead. Undeterred they continued to exert pressure and they were rerwarded with another penalty that Gullis duly converted to make the score 21-20 in injury time. Pooler managed to ride some late Bonymaen pressure and clung on to take the spoils.
Make no mistake this was a poor quality game that at times looked like the Keystone Cops versus the Trumpton Fire Brigade. The  decision making and passing from both sides was pretty poor. Fortunately the referee applied the advantage law liberally and stopped it becoming a scum fest. Still it was another much-needed victory for Pontypool and we can make the visit to Glamorgan Wanderers with a degree of confidence.
I didn't manage to see much of the other Judgement Day but what I did see looked pretty good and the games were a lot more evenly contested than many people expected. I am not sure whether the half full stadium will be judged a success and whether the matches acually judged anything. I am sure the Dragons' fans were amazed at actually being able to watch their team play rugby at 2.30pm on a Saturday afternoon.