Pontypool Rockets, Lancaster Bombs

Saturday started badly – the lift in the apartment block where I live had broken down. Even though I live on the ground floor, I seem to have accepted responsibility for this pesky bit of kit. Suffice to say, by the time that the engineer had fixed it, it was too late to travel to Merthyr to watch Pontypool’s latest encounter. Merthyr have been carrying all before them so far this season and so this was the ultimate test for the injury ravaged Pooler squad.

Eventually I found my way to the couch and, with my mobile phone and tablet close at hand, tuned into the Japan v Samoa match in the RWC. Even though I was not at Merthyr, the excellence of the stream of tweets from the Wern kept me well in touch with what was going on.

Of all the teams competing in the RWC, I think I have enjoyed the play of the Japanese best. Not the biggest in stature, they play a high tempo game which is backed up with technical excellence in the set pieces. After their dramatic win against the Springboks, they were the victim of the dreaded shorted turnaround between matches and rather ran out of steam in the final quarter of the match against Scotland to ultimately lose quite heavily. They were rejuvenated against Samoa and quickly took control of the match against their much more heavily built opponents.

The tweets from Merthyr kept pinging in and it was clear that Pontypool were giving a good account of themselves and the match was building up to a close finish. I glanced at my watch to see if there was still time to jump in the car and drive to Merthyr but it was no good.

Meanwhile the Japanese were building up a healthy lead and looked good for a bonus point win which would threaten the qualification of the heavy weights of their pool South Africa and Samoa.

Another ping and Pooler were actually in the lead at Merthyr but were down to fourteen men. Tension was rising and my palm was sweating as I clutched my mobile phone to my chest. I even had to let go of the remote for the TV – almost unheard of!

On the TV, the heavy hitting of the Samoans had eventually taken its toll on the Japanese and, as their pace slowed, the bonus point was clearly beyond their reach. They would have to settle for a comfortable 25-5 victory.

Yet another ping and the glad news from Merthyr told me what I was longing to hear - Pooler had held on for a 13-20 victory against the league leaders. A fantastic win that will be a real tonic to everyone associated with the club. It has been a tough start to the season and to emerge from it with three away wins and a home draw in the first five games is a great result.

Next up from the RWC was Scotland v South Africa. The South Africans looked to have fully recovered after the shock defeat by Japan and really overpowered the Scots to show that they will certainly be a force to be reckoned with as the tournament progresses. The 34-16 victory puts them in charge of their group with a game against USA to follow. Japan need to beat the USA and hope that Scotland lose against Samoa if they are to progress.

So now on to the most important match of the RWC so far – England v Australia. If England didn’t win they were out and Wales and Australia would qualify for the quarter finals. It is not often that I root for Australia but this was one of those days. Call me parochial but I didn’t really want Wales to have to beat Australia to progress. I don’t think I was alone in that sentiment as the social media was positively seething with pro Aussie messages.

We were told that England, with fire in their bellies, would start well and that their scrum was going to overpower Australia. This couldn’t be further from the truth as the Australians quickly took charge of the game and demonstrated conclusively that their scrum was more than a match for the English. Inexorably the English dream slipped away as their glaring weakness at the breakdown was cruelly exposed by Pocock and Hooper and the Aussies turned pressure into points. Even as a pessimistic Welshmen, I had to concede that we were on our way to the quarterfinals with a match to spare. The final result a resounding 13-33 victory for Australia was a true reflection of the match. England were down and out. The chariot had swung pretty low. As Windsor Davies would have said, “Oh dear, what a pity, never mind.”

So now we will have a few days of recriminations in the English media before rugby disappears off the front and back pages to be replaced by football. I am not sure what all those English rugby pundits are going to do – maybe they will have to start talking about the other teams.

Wales will play Australia at Twickenham next week in the knowledge that they have already qualified. It will be interesting to see what sort of team we field. It seems likely that if we win we would play Scotland and if we lose we would play the Springboks in the quarter final. I think I would be inclined to rest some of the key players for the game and not worry too much about who we will play next. It’s a nice problem to have though!

It looks to me as if the Southern Hemisphere sides, as expected, will be the ones to beat as they all seem to be imposing themselves on the tournament. France and Ireland have not really been tested yet so their encounter next week will be fascinating as they battle to try and avoid facing the All Blacks in the QF.

I am going to the Wales v Australia at Twickers match next weekend and looking forward to a far more relaxed experience than I originally anticipated. My finger nails will certainly benefit as they have been suffering over the last couple of weeks. Pontypool play Llanharan at home and hopefully will build on their brilliant victory over Merthyr.

Hard luck England. Maybe you shouldn’t have bought the chariot from VW after all - the performance wasn't quite as you expected!

Come on Wales, come on Pooler.