Seven Up for Pooler

It’s confession time. I didn’t make the trip to Newcastle Emlyn. There I have said it. Whatever I say will sound lame but this is how it happened. At 11.30am I duly got into the car by myself as none of my usual companions were available for the trip. I felt a bit weary and had to stifle a huge yawn – the early morning swim catching up. Can I be trusted to drive two hours each way as well as suffering the tension of the match? I thought. ‘Of course I can’, I muttered and turned the key in the ignition. ‘Ping’ - the low fuel warning came on. That was the deciding factor – I retreated back to the couch. This sounds weak and pathetic and I am duly ashamed.

Anyway, as it turned out, Pontypool did perfectly well without me and powered to a convincing 19-52 victory at Newcastle Emlyn. From the Twitter feed, it is apparent that the match started as quite a ding-dong affair with the lead changing hands a few times before Pooler asserted their authority. High scores seem to be the norm in this fixture and I regretted not being there as I fidgeted on the couch. Ben Sparks helped himself to a hat trick out of the eight tries that Pooler scored. That is seven out of seven for Pooler who are in second place in the Championship with 34 points behind Cardiff Met who have won all eight of their games and have 36 points. The first encounter between these two teams is something to look forward to. Sadly it is scheduled for the 24^th November which is the day Wales play South Africa. Even though the Wales game does not kick off until 17.20 it is not really possible to go to both – even with a helicopter. With a curtailed season, it is such a shame that this sort of fixture clash occurs.

So what did I see whilst I was playing truant? It started on Friday evening with a taster of Llandovery v. Neath. I only watched the first half an hour and my abiding memory is just how miserable everyone looked both on and off the field. Not really sure why that was. When I flicked over to Leicester Tigers v. the Scarlets, the contrast was remarkable with bright lights and a vibrant crowd. Hard as the Scarlets tried, they could not overcome their lack of power in the scrum and gave away far too many penalties. Leicester played their usual brand of power rugby which on the night proved just sufficient to beat the Scarlets. Frustratingly every time the Welsh side got any decent ball they looked more than capable of splitting the home defence and even took the lead in the second half. One rash pass by Jon Davies in his own twenty two seemed to change the momentum of the game and in the end the Tigers pulled away to win convincingly 45-27.

On Saturday I nearly exhausted the battery in the remote by flicking between matches so often. Both the early games Munster v Gloucester and Castres v. Exeter were affected by early red cards for high tackles. Gloucester lost Cipriani and never looked like being able to cope with Munster who ran out reasonably comfortable winners despite not really playing that well. Castres coped rather better with the loss of number eight Vaipulu and came from behind to narrowly beat the Chiefs. I think everyone agrees that the high tackle needs to be eliminated from the game but there is no doubt that there will be plenty of cards shown as the players find a way of avoiding contact with the head in what is a brutally physical game at the professional level. Players who run close to the ground will surely prove effective ball carriers like running backs in the NFL. Chris Huish would have been ideal.

Almost before I had time to make a cup of tea, the second pair of matches started. Edinburgh were absolutely brilliant in thumping a rather lifeless Toulon side who are a shadow of their former selves (40-14). The Wasps v. Bath game was full of handling errors but pulsating for all that. The final result a 35-35 draw didn’t really suit either side who will now struggle to qualify in a group containing the mighty Leinster. From a Welsh perspective, it was good to see Thomas Young winning the man of the match award. He can certainly do no more to try and gain a place in the Welsh squad.

I adjourned to the pub and, despite seemingly everyone else in the bar engrossed in Huddersfield v. Liverpool, was able to glance now and then at a screen in a dark corner showing Racing 92 v. Ulster. After a combative start Ulster were quite convincingly beaten by the French side who had too much star quality.

The European Rugby Challenge Cup progresses under the radar but both Welsh sides lost – the Dragons at home to Northampton and the Ospreys away at Worcester. So as I write this, it is three losses out of three for the Welsh regions. Maybe Cardiff Blues will be able to prevent the whitewash with their home game against Glasgow. They will really need to play well to do it though.

Next Saturday it should be back to normality with newly promoted Maesteg Quins making the journey to Pontypool Park. In the mean time I will do my penance of singing “the Pontypool Front Row” three times a day for missing the Newcastle Emlyn match. “Up and under here we go……”

Come on Pooler!