Heavy Going for Pooler

The match at Blackwood offered the perfect chance for Pontypool to bounce back after the previous week’s disappointment at Merthyr. Despite their relatively lowly league position, we knew that local rivals Blackwood were never going to make things easy. The weather was cool and dry but a rather sticky pitch was going to provide a searching test test of stamina.

Pontypool totally dominated the first half hour of the match and at times played some excellent rugby with backs and forwards offloading deftly. For all their dominance though, through a combination of a stubborn home defence, the cloying pitch and mistakes at crucial times, Pooler failed to score. We were already reminiscing about the last time that we had watched a 0-0 draw when the deadlock was finally broken. It didn’t come from any intricate back play, however, but from a good old driving lineout with Porter getting the touchdown. Pooler led 0-7 and surely more points would follow.

Pooler continued to dominate but an offload too far led to an interception by Blackwood centre Coed who gleefully scampered 30 metres to score under the posts and tie the scores.

The away side continued to press and Gullis almost got over in the corner but was ruled to have been in touch. Gullis was not to be denied and shortly afterwards he crossed for a try which, with the successful conversion, gave Pontypool a 7-14 lead at half time.

At the start of the second half, Pooler again pushed Blackwood back to their line. They had a series of 5 metre scrums but frustratingly failed to capitalise on a golden opportunity when they lost possession just when a penalty try seemed likely. The pace of the Pontypool three-quarters was proving difficult for Blackwood to contain and two tries from Gullis and Brooks came in quick succession. This increased the Pooler lead to 7-26 and secured a bonus point.

Pontypool seemed to think that the match was won at this stage and took their foot off the gas. They gave away a penalty from the restart and Blackwood kicked for touch. From the ensuing lineout Goodey scored virtually unopposed and the home side still had hope at 14-26.

The usual raft of substitutions seemed to strengthen the home side and disrupt Pontypool and the game became far more evenly contested. Both sides were guilty of squandering good chances as play became more and more scrappy as the heavy pitch took its toll. Blackwood, in particular, failed to score on at least a couple of occasions when they had a clear overlap. In the end Pontypool were mighty glad to hear the final whistle with the final score remaining at 14-26.

A bonus point win at Blackwood is always welcome but one was left with a feeling of deep frustration at the end of the game. Pontypool dominated for most of the game and should have won far more comfortably if just a few more of the scoring opportunities had been taken. At times they play some really great rugby and look particularly good when the tempo is high. Some team is going to suffer when it all clicks that’s for sure.

The Ospreys certainly played at a high tempo when they blew Ulster away in the first hour of their match yesterday. It would be nice to see Wales playing a similar sort of game rather than playing the avoir du pois based stuff. The All Blacks have shown us all how it is done.

Let’s hope for some exhilarating rugby from Pontypool next Saturday against RGC 1604.

Have a merry Xmas and a happy New Year everyone.