Students Teach the Lessons

After the highs and lows of the Six Nations, it was back to the nitty gritty of rugby in the Welsh Championship. On a blustery afternoon Pontypool visited Cardiff Metropolitan University who were only one place below them in the table with games in hand. We expected a close encounter between two teams playing in contrasting styles with the students playing with pace and guile and Pontypool relying more on a power game. In the end we had exactly that but it was certainly not that simple.

Things started badly for the away side when they failed to gather the kick off and in a twinkling of an eye the Cardiffmet left wing was over in the corner and the students led 5-0. The game settled down and Pontypool as expected had a dominant scrum that was going to be a real pressure point for the students. The loose ball was fiercely contested with the home side giving as good as they got with their superior speed to the breakdown. But it was in back play where there was the biggest disparity. The ponderous Pooler passing was in sharp contrast to the slick passing at pace and the challenging running lines of the Cardiffmet backs. Whenever and wherever the students got the ball they were dangerous and, as the half wore on, more and more frequently cut the Pontypool defence. By half time, Pontypool were looking totally bemused and had conceded three more tries. Fortunately all the conversions were missed but the home side’s 20-0 advantage had begun to look unassailable. Still we had the advantage of the wind in the second half so anything was possible.

After some soul searching in the huddle during half time, Pooler started the second half with more purpose and quickly grabbed their first points with a penalty. A few minutes later the game erupted into a disgraceful protracted brawl with virtually all thirty players involved and the referee looking on as a horrified but powerless spectator. Eventually things calmed down with the two yellow cards that resulted seeming far too lenient for the level of violence displayed.

The bout of fisticuffs seemed to galvanise Pooler into action and at last they started to play with real conviction. Quick burst through to score near the posts from a rather scrappy lineout and with the successful conversion the gap closed to 20-10 and the come back had started in earnest. Momentum was lost momentarily soon after, however, when with some weak defence Pooler let Cardiffmet in for yet another unconverted try that opened the gap up to 25-10. Pooler came storming back with Taylor frequently making good ground in the centre. They were rewarded with a good try by substitute Dyckhoff near the posts to bring the score to 25-17.

Pooler could smell blood and ramped up the pressure through their dominant pack. The students began to concede penalties and the away side capitalised on this with some accurate goal kicking. Three successful penalties actually gave Pontypool a narrow lead at 25-26 with only a few minutes remaining. This had seemed an impossible dream half an hour earlier. Now all they had to do was to control the ball and an unlikely victory was theirs. The kick off was gathered successfully but disaster struck when an attempted clearance kick by Mills was charged down and the home side gleefully accepted the gift of their sixth try. At last they managed a successful conversion to go back into the lead at 32-26. There were still a couple of minutes left and Pooler actually got into the home 22 with a series of pick and drives and victory was still possible. The referee put an end to that when he penalised Pontypool at a ruck and the game was over.

In the final analysis, Pontypool conceded six tries and it is pretty unlikely that you are going to win if you do that. It was really only the home side’s poor goal kicking that left Pontypool in with a chance of victory. The fight back was tremendous but my abiding memory of the game was the way that the Cardiffmet backs moved the ball and left us floundering at times. I hope that we have learned some valuable lessons - the hard way!

Talking of contrasts, you couldn’t really have a bigger contrast than the one between the two matches I saw on the TV. On the one hand, you had a dismal affair at the Liberty Stadium where, what was a pretty good crowd for Welsh rugby (7000-8000 I think), watched the Ospreys trounce a hapless Blues side. On the other hand, you had 80,000 plus watching the Saracens play the Harlequins at Wembley in a high octane encounter. It’s a different world I am afraid.