Home Sweet Home

Pontypool finally returned to Pontypool Park for their first home game since the first week of January. They had been on a fantastic journey to the quarter final of the Cup but unfortunately all three games were away from home. Still it had given the army of supporters the opportunity to sample the sparsely populated Scarlet Sahara before moving on to the perfection of the Cardiff carpet and finally coming to grief on the anti-rugby Pandy pudding. A great experience and a great credit to the club who clearly showed that they would be quite at home with the big beasts of the Premiership. Nevertheless, it was great to back in the familiar surroundings of Pontypool as Pooler resumed their challenge for the Championship title. The pitch looked in ideal condition on a calm and mercifully dry day. Pooler had an ideal chance to exorcise the demons of Pandy Park against mid-table Newcastle Emlyn.

Pooler played up the slope in the first half and set off at a cracking pace playing some really attractive running rugby. Unfortunately for the home side, they made far too many handling errors and although they threatened the Emlyn line on many occasions could not get the breakthrough. As the first quarter drew to a close, they had to settle for a solitary penalty goal to lead 3-0.

Suddenly all that changed as the home side began to click …and how! Brookes sprinted over in the corner virtually from the restart (8-0). Not long after Watkins was the beneficiary as Pooler drove over from a lineout and the successful conversion made it 15-0. A sumptuous passage of play saw Jones get the next try after the backs had attacked from long range (22-0). Straight from the restart Brookes got his second as he outpaced the shell-shocked Emlyn defence. The try was converted and from nowhere Pooler had earned their bonus point. The blitz wasn’t over and there was still time for East to rumble over near the posts to boost the score to 36-0 as the first half ended. A truly remarkable passage of play and you feared for Newcastle Emlyn if Pooler continued in the same vein playing down the slope in the second half.

It looked as if it was going to be a continuation of the purple patch as Usher powered his way over in the corner from forty metres out. This was followed by another try from the speedy Brookes who achieved a personal hat trick with another fine effort. Both tries went unconverted, but it seemed as if a cricket score was on the cards with Pooler establishing a 46-0 lead.

The usual bevy of substitutions followed. This had a profound effect on the game as Emlyn seemed to get stronger while Pooler reverted to the rather error-strewn disjointed play of the first quarter. To their credit, the away side started to get a decent share of possession and worked their way up into the Pooler 22 where they camped for a lengthy period. Eventually they got the try their pressure deserved following some good forward play. The conversion failed but at least they were on the scoreboard at 46-5.

Pontypool were stung into action and eventually Quick capped another livewire display with a try that, with the successful conversion, brought up the half century (53-5). Pooler continued to attack but time ran out before they could heap further misery on the gallant visitors.

This was another big win for Pontypool who extended their unbeaten run to eighteen in the Championship and took a great stride towards clinching the title. The devastating purple patch that saw Pooler rack up thirty three points in twenty minutes will linger long in the memory. Just one more win will clinch it now but it would be fantastic if they could win their last four fixtures to finish the season with a perfect record. That certainly will not be easy with the next match away at Cardiff Met who, in the shock of the day, recorded shock win at second in the table Tata Steel.

Another side who were glad to return to their home ground was Wales. They put in a much improved performance to end Ireland’s hopes of winning the Six Nations Championship. The defence was fantastic and for once they took their chances in attack to score three tries with George North looking much more like his old self. It could have been so different if Henshaw hadn’t given away a soft penalty as Ireland were threatening to score a try. Still we will not dwell on that, Wales were deserving victors in a pulsating encounter.  

As the final whistle blew, I commiserated with a travelling Irish fan but all he could manage was, “Do you realise what you have f*****g done, you have just f*****g given the title to f*****g England.” I was a bit non-plussed as I was not quite sure what he thought Wales should have done. He went off into the distance in search of a pint or two of Guinness still chuntering about England. “C’est la vie” as we say in Pontypool.

England duly obliged and crushed Scotland at Twickenham in fine style to become Champions with a game to spare. It is now down to the Irish to stop Edward’s army and “to send them homeward to think again” without the grand slam. I do hope they do as, if not, life in the rugby world will become unbearable again.

Next weekend is blank for Pontypool but Wales have their final match to play in Paris. This will be a very tough physical challenge. The only thing on the line is world ranking points which will affect the Rugby World Cup draw. I think Wales have probably secured their place in the top eight with the victory over Ireland but I am not sure about France who were in eighth place just above Argentina before their win over Italy. It is all too complicated for me! A Wales victory would do just fine.

Come on Wales!

Come on Pooler!