Parkie Prematurely Perpetrates Pooler Postponement

The parkie spoilt our fun and called off Pontypool’s home game against Cardiff Met on Friday afternoon. It seemed a strange decision to call the game off so early when you consider that the visitors didn’t have far to travel and the pitch could easily have been inspected mid morning on the Saturday. It also seems an odd decision when you consider that all the other matches in the division went ahead. Looking at the results, perhaps it was just as well that the match was off as 5 of the 6 games played in the Championship resulted in away wins!

As a result of the disappointment, I was confined to the couch on Saturday afternoon and flicked listlessly between football, English rugby and rugby league and I have to say didn’t really enjoy any of it. Watching Wales being dismantled by the Italians at the Millennium Stadium was particularly distasteful.

On Friday evening I watched the Ospreys v Dragons and did actually find it quite interesting until it was effectively over as a contest when Toby Faletau was carried off. I hope that he recovers quickly as he is a key member of the Welsh team and comes over as a model professional. As a Pontypool fan, you find yourself watching the people who have played for the Pooler in the past and wondering what sort of team we would have if they were all playing for us now. We would certainly have a strong back row! The star of the show, however, has not played for Pooler and it was Tuperic who in a pack of forwards that is dominant is brilliant. He must have enjoyed himself far more than the previous weekend against Northampton.

The Welsh squad for the Autumn internationals did not contain any real surprises. We will miss Cuthbert,that is for sure, as he has quickly become one of our most potent weapons. It is good to see that Mike Phillips has been filling himself with antifreeze ready for the cryogenic chamber!

Next stop for Pooler is Blackwood away - we lost there twice last season so let’s hope we can turn it around.

Pooler run out of puff

This has been a tough couple of weeks for Pontypool. The two longest away trips plus a challenging home game against the clear favourites for the league championship in quick succession has really tested their mettle. After performing well in the first two challenges, understandably they fell short at Narberth - never an easy place to get a win. The final score 24-11 to the home team was rather flattering with Pooler extremely competitive for the first 70 minutes. The last 10 minutes proved decisive with the rigours of the previous week catching up with the team. There was also the added problem of playing against the tricky wind. I don’t think we should be too disappointed as the team is still in its formative stage.

There is little respite with the next match at home against the very fit and well drilled students from Cardiff Met. Let’s hope we can bounce back with a win.

I started my rugby weekend with the All Blacks v Australia and it really was an incredible match played at tremendous speed. There was no milking of penalties but all out attacking rugby from both sides. Australia seem to have recovered their verve in time for their usual victory over Wales. The All Blacks, as we have come to expect, managed to keep their noses in front in an exhilarating encounter with some fantastic tries from both teams.

Everything that followed was like watching a different sport. The two French aristocrats from Toulon and Clermont seemed strangely off colour. Whilst Clermont were still able to account for the Harlequins, the Blues managed to upset Jonny’s boys with a try just before the final whistle. Fortunately for the Blues this put them more than a dropped goal ahead so they just about managed to survive an all-out onslaught on their try line. This was a tremendous result for the Blues after last week’s tribulations.

As for the other Welsh regions, the Ospreys were outgunned by Northampton and with two losses are effectively out of the competition. The Scarlets drew at home with Racing so are still very much in contention although the back-to-back matches with Clermont will certainly be challenging. The four Irish provinces all won as did Glasgow so overall not a bad weekend for the Celtic fringe. In the Amlin Cup the Dragons went down at Bath so have it all to do to qualify for the next stages.

I don’t really understand the British & Irish Cup but I think the Dragons’ second team aka Cross Keys won. I don’t know why the Welsh don’t go the whole hog and do as they Irish do and field a provincial/regional second team.

The Autumn internationals are just around the corner and the battle for the outside half spot for Wales is hotting up. Both Biggar and Priestland look to be playing well so it will be a tough call. If there are no injury worries the rest of the starting team virtually picks itself although the Warburton, Tuperic, Lydiate debate I’m sure will continue to rage. The selections for the bench are becoming more and more important in the professional game and we are still a bit lacking at prop and second row and there is no Olly Kohn to come to the rescue although Coombs is still about. I’m not clear who is the second choice scrum half assuming that Mike Phillips plays - is it Williams or Knoyle or someone else?

On the subject of substitutes, I find it strange that in the Welsh Championship teams are only allowed five when seven and even eight are allowed at higher levels. It has already led to forwards playing in the backs and vice versa. I suppose the Welsh Championship is a long way from international rugby.

Good luck against those pesky students Pooler!

There is still life in the land that the Welsh Rugby Union forgot

This was re-emergent Pooler’s biggest test of the season so far. A visit from their powerful neighbours Ebbw Vale was always going to be a massive challenge.

Both sides have reasons to be disgruntled with the WRU. Ebbw Vale have long been good enough to play in the Premiership but have been denied promotion for spurious reasons. The cynic would say that the WRU are waiting for a team that they do not like to finish at the bottom of the Premiership before they permit promotion. Pontypool, of course, are a team that the WRU don’t like and although they didn’t actually finish bottom of the Premiership were relegated on “track record”. This precipitated the well-documented Poolergate and nearly resulted in the total demise of the club. Suffice it to say that the upper Gwent valleys, a longstanding hot bed of rugby, have been left unrepresented at the higher level which certainly cannot be good for Welsh rugby.

The substantial crowd admirably demonstrated that the local punters are still more than willing to turn out to watch local derbies such as this rather than watch the Heineken Cup on the telly. It was great to see a long queue at the ticket window and the pre-match atmosphere was reminiscent of former times.

So to the match. Ebbw Vale started clear favourites and quickly demonstrated why they have been the major force in the league for several years. They set off with all guns blazing and the home side froze like rabbits caught in the headlights of a car. The away side immediately gained superiority in all aspects of the game and had registered two tries through Meyers and Cunliffe and stormed to a 0-12 lead in a twinkling of an eye. The Pooler faithful were stunned and feared a repeat of last season’s drubbings. To their eternal credit Pontypool did not fold but fought bravely against their stronger and more cohesive neighbours. Ebbw Vale started to make uncharacteristic mistakes as the Pontypool defence pressurised them and although they still held the initiative at scrum and lineout amazingly could not add to their score in the first half. From an attacking perspective, Pooler were unable to get anything going against the well organised Vale defence. They did however manage a Mills penalty to leave the score at half time a rather unlikely 3-12.

In the second half, Pooler seemed to gain inspiration from the closeness of the scores and continued to harass the away side into mistakes. Substitutions and yellow cards made the game less structured which favoured the home side and they finally began to win some decent possession from set pieces. Another Mills penalty closed the gap to 6 points and the Ebbw fans began to shuffle uneasily on the terrace. Pooler began to gain the ascendancy and were rewarded with an excellent try under the posts by Taylor after a precision piece of back play. Against all the odds, the conversion put Pooler in the lead 13-12 and a major upset seemed possible. Ebbw Vale then ably demonstrated why they have been virtually unbeatable in the Championship and put together some irresistible forward drives that resulted in what turned out to be the winning try from Kynes. The successful conversion made the score 13-19 with time running out. Ebbw Vale continued to press as they tried to make the game safe but missed two kickable penalties. For their part, Pooler continued to give everything and got themselves agonisingly close to the Ebbw Vale try line before conceding a penalty. Despite the titanic efforts of both teams, there were to be no more scores however.

Ebbw Vale had protected their unbeaten record but looked mightily relieved when the final whistle sounded. Pooler were left with a losing bonus point but more importantly took another big step forward towards building a competitive team. I think most Pontypool fans would have settled for that before the match but what might have been!

I got home just in time to catch the second half of the Harlequins v Scarlets game. You had to be impressed with the Scarlets and an away win is a great start but I fear there are tougher challenges ahead. The Blues were anything but impressive in the first half against Exeter’s furious onslaught as they conceded virtually a point a minute. Fortunately for them, Exeter could not keep the intensity up and the Blues bagged an unlikely bonus point for scoring four tries in the second half. I didn’t see the Ospreys game but I gather that they were outthought and outfought by Leinster who have clearly decided to concentrate on the Heineken Cup so that they have a strong bargaining position when the time comes. Our old friends the Dragons brushed aside Mogliano minnows so are off to a good start in the Amlin Cup. So overall a patchy start in the European competitions with the Scarlets the standout Welsh performers. I still won’t be putting any money on a Welsh winner though!

It's another long away trip for Pooler next week when we visit Narbeth. Another big challenge but I'm sure that the boys will give a good account of themselves.

The queue at the ticket office for the local derby

Fans enjoying the sunshine on the Bank

Two out of three ain't bad

Well I’ve been on holiday for a couple of weeks and that together with the away fixture in North Wales means that I have missed three Pontypool games. The first was the away trip to Llanharan where we suffered our first defeat of the season. By all accounts, Pooler rather shot themselves in the foot and the result should have been a lot closer. The home game against Bonymaen resulted in a bonus point win that put the show back on the road. The away trip on Saturday to RGC1404 was never going to be an easy one so I was delighted that Pooler managed another away win 20-26. I was at home and rather overdosing on televised rugby flicking between Springboks v All Blacks and Leicester v Northampton. More important was the excellent twitter feed coming in from Ken Hunt at Colwyn Bay which kept pinging away. You could almost feel the tension at the ground as RGC1404 gradually closed what should have been a comfortable Pontypool lead. Modern technology eh!

The win leaves Pooler in second place with the crunch match against unbeaten leaders Ebbw Vale at the park next Saturday. Ebbw Vale have brushed everyone aside so far this season so Pontypool will have their work cut out to get something from this local derby. I’m looking forward to it.

I thought the Springboks v All Blacks was excellent, by the way, with both sides playing open rugby as the Boks tried to get a bonus point win. They managed to get their 4 tries but the All Blacks showed why they are the best side in the world by pulling away at the end. The other games I watched over the weekend were pedestrian in comparison but Toulon v Clermont and Leicester v Northampton were both really hard games.

So the last Heineken Cup starts next weekend. On the face of it, you would not give the Welsh Regions any chance at all of featuring in the latter stages. At least the Blues won yesterday but the Scarlets and Ospreys were both outplayed at home over the weekend. But you never know the Dragons might do some damage in the Amlin Cup.

I saw Roger Lewis pontificating about the future of European rugby but I wonder if the English and French really care what the WRU thinks. They seem to have got everyone by the short and curlies and if the Rabo teams play in a European competition next season it will very much be on Anglo-French terms. Maybe a European super league is the answer but it is doubtful whether a Welsh region would feature in the premier division. It must be my hearing deteriorating, but the Rabo is sounding more and more like the rabble when people talk about it on the TV and radio.

Anyway I don’t really need to lose any sleep over regional rugby when Mr. Lewis is looking after it. I just need to worry about Ebbw Vale next week - come on Pooler!