Pontypool Pay the Penalty

There was really positive news this week with Pontypool gaining the coveted A Licence which means that they can be promoted to the Premiership. There are now seventeen clubs with the A Licence – the twelve already in the Premiership plus Merthyr, Swansea, RGC 1404, Bargoed and Pontypool in the Championship. With the Premiership’s expansion to sixteen next season, the position is now clear. Pontypool need to finish above one of the “famous five” to gain promotion. Currently the five clubs just happen to occupy the top five places in the league so it is very much game on.

In that context, Saturday’s match for Pontypool at Swansea was pretty important as it was potentially a “ten pointer”. Before the match, Swansea were second in the league with Pooler one point behind in third place.

The weather was pretty unpleasant with squally showers which following on from the heavy rain of the last few days meant that this, thanks to the excellent St Helens pitch, was the only Championship game still taking place. The wind was blowing towards the Town End of the ground and Swansea elected to play against the elements in the first half. It was pretty evident early on that Pooler were going to have their hands full if they were going to compete with the all-around strength of the home side. Even with the wind in their favour, Pontypool struggled to get out of their own half for most of the first quarter. Getting on the wrong side of a rather fussy referee and giving away a string of penalties certainly did not help their cause.

The Swansea backs looked dangerous and it was them that broke the deadlock with a sweeping three-quarter move that allowed slippery wing Claypole to score in the corner. It was an excellent try but the final pass did look a little forward to the Pontypool faithful. There followed an exchange of penalty goals with Pontypool converting two to Swansea’s one to leave the score at 8-6 after half an hour. Swansea then took complete charge of the game and camped on the Pontypool line for the remainder of the half. The referee awarded penalty after penalty and two yellow cards against the away side and it seemed inevitable that Swansea would increase their lead. Remarkably Pooler managed to hold out against all the odds with some heroic defending.

So it was 8-6 at half time and Pontypool must have been mighty relieved to be only two points down after being outplayed in the first period. They would have it all to do playing against the wind in the second half and would certainly need to improve their discipline if they were to compete effectively.

What Pontypool really needed was a strong start to the second half even though their ranks were still depleted. It couldn’t have really started worse – they failed to claim the Swansea restart and within moments Swansea crossed for a converted try and the score was 15-6. This seemed to fire Pooler up and they started to get a real foothold in the game with their set-piece play gaining some good possession. Even the referee seemed to approve and began to penalise Swansea at ruck and maul. Gullis kicked a penalty to close the gap to 15-9 and Pooler sensed that a comeback was on the cards. Talking of cards, the referee lost patience with the home side’s persistent offending and sent two Swansea forwards to the sin bin. This was Pooler’s chance and they seized it gleefully. They battered the Swansea line and after a tremendous forward drive the hardworking Nash scored a try. The successful conversion gave Pontypool a narrow lead at 15-16.

With Swansea back to full strength, the last ten minutes or so was a real battle but the wind and Pooler’s indiscipline finally decided the outcome with the away side conceding two kickable penalties that were duly converted. This left the final score at 21-16 with Pontypool having to be content with a losing bonus point.

On the balance of play, you would probably have to say that Swansea just deserved to win. Unfortunately the game seemed to be dominated by the penalty count and this was heavily in Swansea’s favour and this is certainly something that Pontypool will need to think about. Nevertheless it was a massive effort from Pooler and coming away with a bonus point against one of the strongest sides in the league is far from being a disaster. That point might well prove valuable in the final analysis.

Congratulations to the Dragons on their excellent win at Pau. They were the only Welsh region to win with all the others suffering narrow defeats. It is interesting to note that if at the end of the season both Pontypool and Bargoed are promoted there would be six Premiership clubs in the Dragons’ region. I wonder what the WRU would make of that? Could there be a sting in the tail?

The next match for Pontypool is a local derby against Newbridge at Pontypool Park. Let us hope that we can shrug off the reverse against Swansea and get back to winning ways.

I wish all a Merry Xmas and a successful New Year. Come on Pooler!