Pooler Cast Iron Asunder

I had missed the last two Pontypool games and by all accounts Pooler’s performances had been a bit of a mixed bag with a heavy home defeat by Bridgend Athletic followed by a solid away win at local rivals Newbridge. So when I rolled up at Pontypool Park on a beautiful sunny afternoon, I was not really sure what to expect. I certainly hoped that the home side would bloom like the abundant blossom that made the Park look such a picture. The visitors were the Ironmen of Merthyr who have really made their presence felt in the Championship after promotion the previous season. They actually occupied fourth place in the table one position above Pontypool and had already lowered Pooler’s colours in the reverse fixture in a thoroughly entertaining encounter. This was certainly not going to be easy.

Pontypool played down the slope in the first half and had some advantage from a stiff breeze that was blowing almost across the pitch. The home side failed to field the Merthyr kick off and were immediately under pressure with Merthyr putting phase after phase together. Pontypool’s defence held firm and they eventually were awarded a penalty and managed to escape from their twenty two. The home side worked their way down field and demonstrated how to take advantage of field position when fullback Hurley burst through to score after entering the three-quarter line at pace. The successful conversion gave Pooler a 7-0 lead.

The rest of the first half was a curious affair with Pontypool having real dominance in the set pieces and often pushing back the Merthyr scrum yards. For all that dominance, however, Merthyr seemed the more likely side to score as they seemed to possess an uncanny knack of evading the home side’s attempted tackles. This resulted in many line breaks and the away side having the upper hand in terms of territory. Somehow Pontypool seemed to be able to make the last ditch tackle that prevented a try being scored and Merthyr were unable to register any points. For their part Pontypool used their forward power to win a couple of penalties and increased their lead to 13-0 by half time. The game was still in the balance as the Merthyr backs had looked more than capable of reducing the deficit if given good ball.

Merthyr started strongly in the second half but again failed to cross the home try line despite creating a number of chances. The Pontypool scrum was proving a formidable weapon and coupled with some powerful driving play from the forwards allowed them to work their way back up field.

Pontypool created a number of chances themselves as their forward dominance told. They were rather unfortunately penalised for not releasing the ball during an attack and in the blink of an eye the Merthyr scrum half had taken a quick tap penalty and their speedy backs had run seventy metres to score in the corner. At 13-5 it was game on and you felt that the next score would be crucial.

Pooler were stung into action and started to play some of their best rugby. They pressed hard but frustratingly the final scoring pass failed to go to hand on several occasions. Eventually the pressure told and, spurning an opportunity for an easy three points, they took a quick tap penalty themselves for Matthew Thomas to score under the posts. This opened up a 15 point gap with around ten minutes remaining and this proved to be a winning lead despite a yellow card for Pooler’s Nash and some enterprising play from Merthyr as they threw caution to the wind. Both sides created some chances but neither troubled the scoreboard to leave the final score at 20-5.

This was a really good performance from Pontypool against strong opposition. The basis of the victory was the powerful pack and the team managed to take their opportunities at crucial stages of the game. This is something that has not always been the case during a rather inconsistent season. There are now only two games remaining and next week sees the visit of hapless Blackwood to the Park. There is no room for complacency but a good victory would leave the team in good heart for the visit to RGC 1404 that rounds off the season.

Well done Pooler let’s finish off the season in style!