Full of the joys of Spring - on Saturday anyway

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon as we drove up to Pontypool for the home game against Narberth. I made sure to drive especially carefully around Griffithstown in case a Russian tank commander had put the wrong Sebastopol in his satnav. Pontypool Park was looking a picture in the Spring sunshine as we made our way up on to the Bank. The pitch, for once this year, was dry and, although there was quite a strong breeze, conditions were ideal for rugby.

Right from the kick off it was clear that these were two evenly matched sides as their league positions would indicate. Both sides employed similar tactics with long kicks to try and establish a position in the opponent’s half so it was a bit like ping pong. The scoring in the first quarter was restricted to an exchange of penalties leaving the score at 6-6. In the second quarter, Pooler made the first significant move when Hurley squeezed in for a try in the corner after some good inter-passing by the backs. It was a close thing and the referee looked like he wanted to go “upstairs”. Of course the Championship is the equivalent of a bungalow so he had to be content with some valuable advice from the Pontypool touch judge. The try went unconverted to make the score 11-6. Narberth bounced back strongly and some rather weak tackling allowed their fullback Morgan to skate through and score under the posts to retake the lead at 11-13. The remainder of the first half was a little frenetic with a yellow card for both sides and Pooler first retaking the lead with a penalty but quickly losing it to a Narberth penalty. The half time score was tight at 14-16 and the final result was too close to call.

Strangely the second half was scoreless for a long period. Pooler did well to hold out as Narberth pressed when their scrum established a degree of dominance. Of the two sides, Narberth certainly looked the more likely to score as their tricky backs often managed to squirm through the first tackle. Against the run of play, Pooler squeezed into a narrow lead with another penalty 17-16. The pattern of the game was disrupted as both sides made their substitutions and the action moved from end to end and it was still difficult to pick the eventual winner. The next score was probably going to be decisive. To our delight the next score was an excellent try for Pontypool. Backs and forwards combined in a flowing move for Dyckhoff to cross and with the successful conversion there was finally daylight between the teams at 24-16. Narberth threw everything at Pooler for the final few minutes to try and at least get a losing bonus point. In injury time a Narberth attack in the home 22 broke down and Norton hacked the ball up field. He won the chase into the visitors’ 22 and, although he was tackled, managed to pop the ball up for Burke to score under the posts. The final score at 31-16 was a little flattering after what had been a hard and even encounter.

This was an excellent win against strong opposition. Let’s hope that it bodes well for the remainder of the season and we continue to climb up the table. It was a particularly impressive effort to keep a talented Narberth side scoreless in the second half.

PS Just in case you don’t hear about it in the media England beat Wales at Twickenham