The Agony and the Ecstasy

Being a Pontypool and Wales fan is not for the faint hearted, life is full of twists and turns some good and some bad. Saturday was one of those days when we were tested to the full.

First came a visit to Pontypool Park for the visit of Bargoed who last season carried everything before them in the Championship to finish as champions by a street. By all rights, it should have meant promotion to the Premiership but lack of the dreaded A licence prevented this from happening. This season Bargoed have already lost two matches which as many as they lost in total last term. We knew that Pontypool could expect a stern examination as Bargoed attempted to right their ship.

It turned out to by a niggly and ugly Gwent derby with far too many mistakes made by both sides. The opening stanzas all belonged to Bargoed who completely monopolised possession for the first quarter of an hour. It was no real surprise when they opened the scoring with an unconverted try when Coombs drove over from a lineout close to the Pooler line. Pooler came back strongly from this and Burke crossed for a well taken try after good handling by the backs. The try went unconverted but the home side edged in front 8-5 with a penalty from Gullis.

The niggle that had been evident from the start bubbled to the surface as Bargoed managed to get under Pooler’s skin. After a bout of fisticffs, Pizey from Bargoed and Mills from Pontypool were yellow carded. This disrupted both sides but Bargoed began to exert a degree of dominance and were rewarded with their second try when Humphries scored in the corner. This time the conversion was successful and Bargoed led 8-12. Bargoed looked the more likely to score in the remainder of the first half but it was Pontypool who managed to close the gap with another Gullis penalty. At 11-12 at half time the game was in the balance.

Bargoed playing down the slope, started the second half the stronger and the Pontypool defence parted like the Red Sea for Moses to allow Dyer to score near the posts opening up an eight point lead for the visitors. A yellow card for the belligerent visiting captain Meades gave the home side a chance to exert some pressure on the Bargoed line and eventually Quick darted over to score in the corner. The conversion was missed but it brought Pooler back within a score at 16-19.

The niggle continued amongst the forwards and Pooler prop Edwards lost his rag and was given a red card for punching an opponent and became the second prop in two weeks to receive his marching orders. The home side’s discipline again failed them and a yellow card for Scanlon for an offence at a ruck meant that they were reduced to thirteen men.

The stage was set for Bargoed to take charge and seal a bonus point win. Fortunately for the home side, the visitors completely fluffed their lines even though they were camped out near the Pooler goal line. Indeed Pontypool managed to break out of the stranglehold and in a rare sortie into the Bargoed half they were awarded a penalty which Gullis duly converted to tie up the scores at 19-19. Pooler held out relatively comfortably to earn a rather unlikely draw.

Pontypool now face a daunting visit to Merthyr next Saturday. Merthyr have carried all before them so far this season and look a sure-fire bet for promotion on the back of a major squad strengthening exercise and plenty of pies. Pooler will certainly need to improve their discipline if they are get anything out of this game.

Rugby has become a complicated game and it is often difficult for the spectators on the terrace to understand why penalties etc. are being awarded. I think we should spare a thought for the referees in the lower echelons of the game. To referee at the highest level it seems that the merry whistle blower needs a considerable amount of assistance. He has two assistant referees plus a fourth official connected to him via a radio link. If there is any doubt, he has the benefit of replays and even someone else to make the contentious decisions. Even then a partisan fan might think that a decision is wrong. How then can we expect one poor dab with limited experience and no help at all to make all the correct calls? I take my hat off to these brave souls who stand out in the middle of the field every Saturday for without them we would have no game at all.

The evening saw what was billed variously as “the most important game ever” and “life or death” by the media. Yes it was a pool match at Twickenham between England and Wales in the Rugby World Cup. England had been made clear favourites by the bookies but spurred on by Pooler’s unlikely draw I settled down with a glass of Magner’s to witness the event on the TV. I pulled the couch out from the wall so I could hide behind it if things got ugly.

It certainly did look as if things were going to get ugly as the England scrum dismantled the Wales scrum. Away from the scrum, Wales looked pretty competitive although it looked like England were the more likely to score a try. There were plenty of penalties for both sides and there was some exemplary goal kicking from Biggar and Farrell. England scored the first try when May skated through after a bouncing ball created confusion in the Welsh defence. England looked pretty comfortable at 16-6 although a third Biggar penalty closed the cap to 16-9 at half time.

England got the crucial first score of the second half and at 19-9 things started looking bad for Wales. Their most penetrative back Scott Williams had been stretchered off and it was hard to see how they would score the try they would surely need especially as the scrum was still in dire trouble. A further penalty from Biggar meant that hope still flickered. An England attack left red-covered bodies strewn about the pitch in a scene resembling Rorke’s Drift. The outcome was both Liam Williams and Amos leaving the field and a major rejig of the Welsh backs. We now had a wing in the centre. A fly half at full back and a scrum half on the wing. The game was surely up and I a poured myself another Magner’s to drown my sorrows.

Astonishingly the game was not up at all and Wales scored a brilliant try under the posts from nowhere. Lloyd Williams, a scrum half playing on the wing, was set free by some good passing and his brilliant cross kick was gathered by the scrum half Davies to score the try. Wales had drawn level against all the odds and my heart was pounding. There was still time left and that England scrum was still hanging over us. Wales seemed to find new energy and belief from somewhere and were awarded a penalty virtually on the halfway line. Up stepped Biggar and the ball sailed between the posts. Wales were actually in the lead with time running out.

My heart sank as England were awarded a penalty deep in the Welsh half but wide out. Farrell would surely kick it but at least we would come out of the match with a draw. In a startling decision England kicked to the corner anticipating that a driving lineout would deliver a try and victory. It was time to go behind the couch and send for the crash trolley just in case. Wales have never defended a lineout better and shoved the much vaunted England pack into touch. Moments later we were bellowing in joy as Biggar booted the ball into touch as time was up.

What a victory. All the talk in the studio was about how England had lost the game rather than how Wales had won the game. Quite frankly my dear I couldn’t give a damn. Wales had won against all the odds. Shades of Wembley 1999. Wow!!

On reflection this morning, as the euphoria subsides, you realise that for Wales the job is far from done. There is no doubt a hefty butcher’s bill to consider and we really have to beat Fiji in a few days’ time to progress. The way our backs have been going down like nine pins it is hard to see what kind of team will take the field on Thursday. We need Paul James back to bolster the forwards as the scrum was in real trouble and Fiji matched England there in the first game. Will James Hook finally get the nod? Perhaps my reference to Rorke’s Drift is an omen.  He must be the only back standing from the original squad who hasn’t been called up yet! There isn’t much time to make the decisions that’s for sure.

In the meantime I will enjoy the sweet scent of victory against the old enemy. Come on Wales!

Phew what a day!

Injury prone Wales fail to convince

Thank goodness, Wales comfortably avoided a huge potential banana skin. Of course, defeat should never really been crossing our minds against the pluck amateurs of Uruguay but after Japan beating the Boks you just never know.

Any of the other members of the “pool of death” will not be unduly concerned about what they saw as Wales stuttered to a 54-9 victory over the South Americans. Rather like England against Fiji, Wales turned the ball over far too many times for their liking with the amount of ball lost in contact a real issue. Perhaps the most worrying aspect though was the further swelling of the sick list and the fact that the two key players who were rushed back, Liam Williams and Samson Lee, both failed to complete the match due to injuries. Add to that injuries to back-up centre Allan and props Jarvis and James and it represents a real cause for concern. Perhaps we have not yet properly acclimatised to local conditions!

There was a distinct feeling that Wales were holding back and not really going into the collisions with the ferocity that the modern game demands. Well this certainly will not do against England and I am sure that the lads will raise the intensity a few more notches against the old enemy. There were some positives of course and Tupuric, as usual, looked very good with Jake Ball also showing up very well. In addition, Priestland’s goal kicking was really consistent and there were some well taken tries.

Warren Gatland looked quite a worried man during the post-match interviews and his biggest concern must be the injuries. The clock is ticking and he needs to call for any replacements to the squad quickly with the seventy two hour deadline fast approaching if they are to be eligible to participate in the England game. I understand that once a player has been replaced in the squad he cannot return so these will be tough decisions. With an urgent need to win at least two of the three remaining pool matches, we need maximum squad strength. There will not really be enough time between the England and Fiji games to call for more replacements. It sounds as if the injury to Allan is the most serious and the experienced and versatile James Hook must surely be worth serious consideration.

Nil desperandum Wales, we can still do it. The injury list is nothing like as long as the one at Pontypool and we managed to beat Newbridge away!

Bridging the gap …and some!

The Rugby World Cup is under way and there is a surfeit of rugby for us addicts.

The starter for Saturday’s feast came from Gloucester were the tough and uncompromising Georgia beat a rather lack lustre and disorganised Tonga side. This was treated with mild surprise but did not really prepare us for what was to follow.

The main course was Pontypool’s visit to the Welfare Ground in Newbridge which has been the scene of many a fiercely contested local derby over the years. Newbridge have started the season well with two victories and Pooler were anxious to bounce back from last week’s disappointing showing against Swansea.

Pooler, inspired by the return of the combative Nash at flanker, went off at a cracking pace and soon had the home side under all sorts of pressure. The pressure was quickly converted into points by two penalty goals converted by Hancock.

Newbridge gradually found their feet and began to dominate possession and territory. Their reward came when they were awarded a penalty for an offence at a ruck that closed the gap to 3-6. The penalty was accompanied by a yellow card for Pooler lock Jones. To make matters worse the Pontypool injury jinx continued when centre Madgwick was stretchered off with an ankle injury.

Despite the disruption, Pontypool surprisingly enjoyed a purple patch. It started when Newbridge made an awful hash of a lineout on their line and Pooler number eight Williams pounced to score. Then Nash broke from a scrum to put Mills in for a try near the posts. Both tries were converted and the away side had suddenly opened up a healthy 3-20 lead. Pontypool were further hampered by the loss of flanker Rusby-Davies through injury. Newbridge threatened briefly but the away side held out without too much trouble to maintain their lead at half time.

The second half saw more Newbridge pressure but the powerful Pooler scrum and their ferocious work at the breakdown kept them at bay. The referee lost patience with the continual offending of the home front row at the scrum and there was a yellow card for Newbridge prop Williams. A boxing match between Scott Williams in the blue corner and Garin Harris in the red corner resulted in them both being shown red cards. This meant that Newbridge were now pretty unlikely to be able to close the gap in the scores as we went into the final quarter. The home backs didn’t seem to think so and attempted to run the ball from behind their own goal line with disastrous consequences. A Pontypool scrum on the Newbridge line resulted and inevitably Pooler drove the scrum over the try line for Williams to touch down for his second try. The try went unconverted but the score line at 3-25 left far too much for Newbridge to do.

Pooler took their foot off the throttle and Newbridge took advantage to score a converted try closing the gap to 10-25. Pontypool were stung into action but squandered a chance of a bonus point when a lineout on the Newbridge line went wrong. The home side had the last say with a consolation try from the last play of the match to leave the final score at 17-25.

This was a strong and spirited display from Pontypool with the return of Nash at flanker and Gullis at fullback major plusses. The pack seems to be coming together as a formidable unit both at set piece and in the loose. The backs seem to have potential but the constant disruption by the lengthy injury list means that we have not yet managed to put together a settled combination.

Next week sees the visit of reigning champions Bargoed to Pontypool Park and a chance to gain revenge for two heavy defeats last season.

So back to the RWC and a chance to watch South Africa tune up with a comfortable victory over Japan – or so we thought! Japan shocked the rugby world by pulling off a last gasp victory over the mighty Boks. This was not a fluke - the Japanese thoroughly deserved to win as they matched the illustrious opponents in all aspects of the game.

I remember watching Japan lose by 145 points to New Zealand in the RWC in South Africa in 1995 – they have certainly come a long way since then. About ten years ago I went to a university match in Japan and was blown away by the skills of the players. Yes, the Japanese have been technically good for a while now but have always been hampered by their generally small stature. Now the home grown players are noticeably chunkier and they are augmented by the judicious use of South Sea Island beef. The result is that they are far more competitive as the South Africans found out to their cost. The South Africans did the classic thing and set out to out-muscle the Japanese with their version of “Warrenball”. It worked to an extent but every time you thought they were going to pull away the Japanese pegged them back with well organised attacks. At the end of the game a lot of people were shaking their heads in disbelief. The outpouring of joy from the Japanese players and fans will live long in the memory.

I did watch the opening match between England and Fiji on Friday and the final score certainly flattered England. There was a period in the second half when England were certainly rattled and I thought, “Maybe just maybe…”. The strength of the England bench told in the end and the introduction of the two Pontypool boys was decisive. England did not really look invincible that’s for sure. For the next England game (which happens to be against Wales), I do hope that the ITV bring a bit more balance to their panel of experts. It was a bit tedious listening to Clive, Jonny and Laurence all saying the same things.

The astonishing Japanese victory now puts a bit of a different light on who might play who in the quarter finals. It very much depends on whether the Boks can recover from the shock and whether the Japanese can back up their performance against Scotland and Samoa.

I find the format of five teams in each pool a bit strange with the huge disparity it brings in the length of the intervals between matches. Wales have only four rest days between the England game and facing Fiji but then double that between the Fiji and Australia games. You wonder why they can’t have an even number of teams in a pool playing on the same day.

After the excitement of Newbridge and Brighton, I needed a drink and didn’t manage to see anything of the French victory over Italy or indeed the highlights of the Irish hammering of Canada. There is a limit to how much a man can take in one day.

And so to today and Wales have to face Uruguay. This surely can’t be another shock can it? I don’t even want to think about it.

Come on Wales and come on Pooler.  

Down to Earth with Bumps

There are few more scenic places to watch rugby than Pontypool Park on a sunny September afternoon. The ground looked a picture for the first home league game of the season and we could look forward to a lively encounter between old rivals Pontypool and Swansea. Both teams had won their first matches and the Pontypool faithful hoped that the home team could put down a marker against a powerful Swansea team that must surely be one of the favourites for the league title. The Pontypool team had a familiar look about it as many of the new members of the squad were unavailable due to injury.

Swansea dominated the early exchanges but were let down by poor handling at crucial times. This coupled with some strong Pontypool defence prevented them from taking the lead. Pontypool managed to break out but, in the course of doing so, influential centre Thorley was badly injured and was stretchered off. We wish him well and hope that he has a speedy recovery. This disrupted both Pooler’s shape and their rhythm and Swansea wrestled back the initiative and scored their first try soon afterwards to take a 0-7 lead.

The home side hit back with a Tom Hancock penalty but this was cancelled out by a Swansea penalty to leave the score 3-10. A sustained period of pressure close to the Swansea line eventually led to a penalty try being awarded to the home side at a scrum which tied the match up at 10-10.

Pontypool were further disrupted by the loss of Jordan Williams who was replaced by lock Lee Williams. Losing two players through injury so early on when you are only allowed five replacements in total does make things difficult as it drastically reduces the options for tactical substitutions later in game. I am still not clear why teams in the Championship are restricted to just five replacements.

Swansea finished the half the stronger and were rewarded with a further try after some excellent combined play following a quick throw in at a lineout near their own twenty two. The half time score was 10-17 and both sides looked delighted for a break on what was a pretty warm afternoon.

The home side started strongly in the second half and went close to scoring a try on a number of occasions. They had to settle for whittling away the Swansea lead through two penalties and with the score at 16-17 it was still anyone’s game.

As Pontypool tired, the lively Swansea backs started to find more and more gaps to exploit and although Pooler strove manfully the last quarter belonged to the visitors who played some excellent rugby. Swansea pulled majestically away with two tries one of which was converted and a penalty to earn a bonus point victory with a final score of 16-32. In truth the margin could have been greater and there is no doubt that Swansea will be a force to be reckoned with in the league for the rest of the season.

As for Pooler, they will need to lick their wounds and try and lift themselves for what promises to be a tough local derby at Newbridge next week. The long list of injuries is a concern, let us hope that the medical staff can work wonders so that we can start to reap the benefits of what is a strong squad of players. Of course we should feel disappointed at the loss, but I don’t think that we need to feel too bad about losing to a Swansea side that will not be beaten many times this season.

The RWC is just around the corner and Wales too are beset by injuries. It will take a monumental effort for them to get out of “the group of death” but they still have a fighting chance. We need a lot of luck with injuries as the strength in depth is now really being challenged. I suppose it can’t be that bad if James Hook is not good enough even to be a replacement! I don’t know much about Uruguay but if they have players with a similar physique to the Argentinians they can rattle a few bones. The Fijians will certainly give us plenty to worry about and then there are England and Australia. The RWC is sure to be pretty brutal and the teams with the strongest squads will the ones to win through in the end.

Injuries certainly seem to be an ever increasing worry in rugby. Some of us can still remember the days when Pooler used to play forty-odd games a season with what seemed like the same team for every match. Perhaps my memory is playing tricks!

So next weekend serves up a menu of Newbridge and Uruguay. Come on Pooler! Come on Wales!  

Good News and Bad News

Yesterday afternoon started very well when the news came through that Pontypool had won their first league game of the season at Narberth. I had been squirming and fretting on the couch for the news as Narberth is certainly not the first choice venue for the season’s opener.  Not many sides manage to lower Narberth’s colours at the Lewis Lloyd ground so this really is an encouraging start to what is likely to be a very competitive league.

Reading the match report, and talking with Pooler fans who had made the trip it was a typical early season game with plenty of errors from both sides as they got back to business. The cutting edge provided by Nathan Brookes and the sheer determination of the side to win proved to be decisive in the end with Pooler deserving their 18-26 victory.

It doesn’t get any easier as next week’s match is against Swansea at Pontypool Park. Swansea are sure to be strong contenders for the league title so it is a great chance for Pooler to test their mettle.

Back on the couch, I was watching England and Ireland battling it out. From a Welsh perspective the news started off badly as England looked really good with the backs looking particularly sharp. The news improved as the Irish began to get into the game. The English scrum looked surprisingly vulnerable and the backs didn’t look so clever when the pressure came on. In the end England won but you were not left feeling that they were invincible. If England had a constructive open side flanker in the Neil Back mould who acted as a link between backs and forwards they could be far more dangerous.

The worst news of the day was to come as I settled down to watch Wales play Italy. I think everyone including the Welsh team expected wales to just turn up and have a comfortable victory. Complacency is a dangerous thing and of course Parisse and the Italian team had an entirely different view of what was going to happen. Wales were pretty poor and a pale shadow of the team that had won in Dublin the previous week. The Italians were powerful in the scrums and a handful in the loose. They took every opportunity to slow the game down and prevented Wales getting into any kind of rhythm. If they had won it would have been no more than they deserved.

Wales played in fits and starts and conceded possession for long periods of the game. When they got the ball they far too often kicked it away. They were penalised heavily at the scrum and the lineout did not function smoothly. It was woeful at times.

Not only did Wales fail to fire but they were also badly hit by injuries. Two of the key players for the imminent RWC: Webb and Halfpenny were stretchered off with serious looking injuries. There is no doubt the seriousness of the Webb injury affected the Welsh players’ performance and seemed to make them much more tentative. If Webb and Halfpenny are out of action for an extended period it really is a body blow to the Welsh hopes going forward.

For the record Wales clung on to win 23-19 and only managed one try to Italy’s two. For Wales, only two players did themselves justice – Scott Williams gave a good all-round performance at centre and Sam Warburton was effective at the breakdown and also carried the ball strongly at times. There was a powerful brief cameo from Moriarty when he came on as a substitute but far too many Welsh players under-performed. I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes on Monday!  

So there will be an anxious time for Wales as they regroup to lick their wounds. Let us hope that Webb and Halfpennny are not too badly hurt and I wish both a speedy recovery. Realistically though it did not look good so let us hope Liam Williams is fit. Will we see Mike Phillips return to the squad I wonder?

The good news is that I have prised myself off the couch and will be fit and ready for Pooler’s first home game against Swansea.

Come on Pooler!