Fixture

With storm Barney returning to South Wales we ventured up to a wet and windy (just like johnny beans likes his women) Bryncoch. They obviously fancied their chances up front as although the pitch weren't to bad and the rain did abate apart from a few downpours it was definetly a day for the boys who as Joey eloquently put it like to roll around in pig shit all day! Weakened by a trip to watch Liverpool tear the swans a new @#%&hole tomorrow i was glad to see Joey the young man to me but old man to everyone else as it meant i didn't have to play hooker. Bryncoch started well with the wind and rain behind them however Beans showed them any progress would be hard earned by smashing their round hooker they did however get an early try which they failed to convert. This though sparked Aber into action and after some probing runs by the Goat, we were camped in the Bryncoch 22 with Pepsi directing traffic back and fore Kelvan got close as he gave his impression of a rampaging rhinoceros but it was his brawd Ding showed him how it was done by storming over with an unstoppable surge Hodge knocked over the conversion and it was 7-5 to the Aber. Despite struggling at both set pieces we were still camped in the Bryn half with only big kicks from the bryn 10 relieving the pressure. From one of these the old warrior Joey showed his old head was still switched on by calmly walking up to a fully formed line out and marching it back to the bryn by reminding the ref it had been kicked straight out after it had been passed back in to the 22. Bryncoch did knock over a penalty but straight from the ko Cellan Edwards took a superb steal to allow Hodge to knock one over for us to make the score 10-8 to us. However Bryncoch ended the half strongly and on the back of a dominant scrum scored another try this time converted to make the ht score Bryncoch 15 Abercrave 10. The ht time break saw the big tackling Tom leave to start his shift for the boys in blue but also try scorer Ding forced off after a blow to the head. This meant the nice warm suits had to come off for me and Pyart pushing the average age up considerably and possibly forming with Scones the oldest back row ever for the firsts!!!
The elements had also combined to kick us in the nuts as the wind died down and even the rain stopped. Bryncoch continued to put us under pressure but after they knocked on Hodge hacked clear as one of their boys tried to hack it back it hit one of their players in an offside position, quick thinking Doc realised he was now onside and did his own hacking on showed some Messi like footwork to dribble the ball over the line and touch down under the sticks for a try. Hodge again converted and we were back in front 17-15. This led to a period of Bryncoch pressure but when we did get some ball the Goat and Paul Bond among the backs were looking extremely dangerous which made it even more frustrating when after one breakout the Goat was injured forcing him off. With no backs on the bench on came Tunner who had earlier told me he was hanging as he had been taking it up the bum till 7am, well i think he said that my old ears are not what they used to he may have said he was drinking rum till 7!!! Pyart drew the short straw and ended up on the wing as we reshuffled the pack to accommodate his arrival. Bryncoch now battered our line but solid defense led by myself, Alex Dans and Scones up front and Doc and Dewi in the backs kept out their repeated surges. Finally we cracked as they created an overlap out wide which they exploited to squeeze in at the corner the conversion failed but they were back in front at 20-17. They stayed on top and soon added another try to take away our bonus point as the fading light accompanied the final stages of the game he even knocked over the touchline conversion to make it 27-17. With minutes left we fought our way back up field and were awarded a penalty, this came after Stu Hill who admittedly was one of the fastest props I've seen tried to run around Doc and got munched. Hodge calmly stepped up but at the last moment the ball blew over, undaunted and showing his full range of teckers he picked up the ball and calmly dropped a goal to take us back into bonus point territory. From the ko i calmly trapped the ball with more Messi like skills and offloaded to Scones who stroked the ball out up to halfway for a highly unusual but very efficient exit strategy!! We had minutes to hold on but Bryncoch were determined to deny us even a bonus point, they stretched us from line to line Dewi and Cellan made tackle after tackle leading the way but they finally crashed over in the final moment to make the final score 33-20 and deny us a bonus point our efforts deserved.
Boys whilst the effort was superb and no one can doubt the commitment and bravery as the coaches and Doc said after whats missing is fitness and organisation so we need to start training in numbers to get both of these. My Mom would be Doc for his try and defense and my twat would be close between Phil Davies for refusing to go linesman and the Bryncoch fan who accused them of trying to play sevens rugby after they knocked on after one pass out of a ruck!! Changing rooms were fun and Anj may have a job to clean out both his holes of all the sand before his op this week and we wish him well with that but why Kelvan had to show us his sandy undercarriage is beyond me and the sight will haunt me for years to come!!

** Another brilliant report by Ralph