No Scrums of Comfort

After last weekend’s tough encounter with Bedwas in the Cup, Pontypool were back in action in the Championship with a trip to Llanharan. Over the years, an away fixture at Llanharan has been anything but easy. Indeed, as recently as last season Pontypool came a cropper there. Sadly things have turned sour at the Dairy Field and Llanharan find themselves adrift at the bottom of the league. Rather like Blackwood last season they have been on the end of some fearsome beatings and so Pooler were optimistic about a much-needed bonus point win.

The sun was trying hard to break through when I arrived although it certainly was not shining on the home side. Llanharan were unable to field a front row and so the match would have uncontested scrummaging from the start. The sanction for this was that Llanharan would not have any replacements available. Now Pontypool regard their scrum as a potent weapon so it was not really clear whether the situation was advantageous to them. Still rules is rules - but it a sad reflection on the prevailing conditions in the Championship.

From the kick off, you got the distinct feeling that both sides felt that the result was a foregone conclusion. Pontypool would try and claim the four try bonus point as quickly as they could and Llanharan would fight a brave rear-guard action. This made for a strangely unsatisfying first half.

It was clear that if Pooler managed to string a decent number of phases together they would probably score. The lightweight Llanharan pack, not taxed by scrummaging, were lively and committed and certainly made things difficult for Pooler and this coupled with a lot of errors made for a frustrating opening stanza. Once they settled down to life without active scrums, Pontypool seemed to have most joy down the left flank and soon they were scoring at regular intervals with Hurley and Gullis looking particularly lively. After half an hour they had secured the bonus point and by half time they had scored six tries to lead 0-36. You feared for Llanharan in the second half especially as they were reduced to fourteen men by an injury.

The second half was a strange affair with Pontypool unable to establish the level of control that they really should have. True they scored another four tries but they left a lot more out there as good approach play too often didn’t deliver an end product. The introduction of all the replacements probably didn’t help but there was a lot of inaccuracy in the passing that would be severely punished against stronger opposition. Llanharan for their part never gave up trying and were rewarded with a couple of converted tries following Pontypool mistakes.

The final score was 14-64 with for the record Pontypool try scorers; Hurley(3), Thorley, Tu’ipolotu, Mills, Jeune, Nash, Thomas and Lewis. Gullis kicked 7 conversions.

This was a bit of an unsatisfying match played in strange circumstances but Pontypool did what they had to do and served up some really good rugby at times. I am sure if this had been a match with contested scrums the result would have been even more convincing. It was good to see Thorley and Jones back after long absences and as the injury list shortens the squad looks to have more strength in depth than at any time during the season. This will certainly need this as the battle for promotion hots up. Both Bargoed and RGC 1404 had good wins yesterday so it looks like it might go right to the wire. The final few weeks of rearranged fixtures will probably be decisive with the contenders playing each other in tense circumstances.

Next week Pontypool play Newcastle Emlyn at home and certainly cannot afford to take them lightly. A slip up even at this stage of the season could be costly.

The Welsh Squad for the Six Nations contained few surprises. It seems that Gatland’s law has been repealed with no fewer than ten of the squad playing for clubs outside of Wales. It will be a tough opening match in Ireland although the Irish Provinces have not exactly been setting Europe alight - a bit like their Welsh counterparts.

Still my thoughts are with Pontypool v. Newcastle Emlyn next week.

Come on Pooler!