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!