Fixture

Winter finally arrived in earnest and with the first real cold spell came Pontycymmer on a visit to PlasY Ddol. With Ponty lying like Abercrave at the wrong end of the table a win was needed by both sides to try and climb the table. Unfortunately for Aber quite a few boys were unavailable for differing reasons, on the plus side we had enough boys to put me on the bench despite scoring a superb try in the touch rugby post warm up!!!
Despite arriving a bit late Pontycymmer looked up for the fight and as expected boasted a big pack to take on a weakened Aber pack, however from the first scrum the Aber front row of Glyn Shaver, Owen Phillips and Johnny Beans showed they were up for the task by driving their heavier opponents back a feat that was to be repeated throughout the game. Once the Aber backs had some ball it was clear they had the advantage on their opposite numbers and early attacks looked promising. The first try arrived after Alex Williams threaded a grubber kick through the Ponty winger made a hash of picking the ball up and Cellan Edwards was on him in a flash picked the ball up and freed the rampaging Goat who with no one in front of him needed no second invite to go over for the opening try. Darren Hodge was off with the conversion but nerves were settled and the Aber were playing some great rugby. The second try came after a period of open play after both teams had given some width on the ball but got turned over to leave the other teams attack. Ponty tried to clear their lines and booted the ball to the Goat a big mistake he ran straight through several attempted tackles seemed to be caught three times but still kept on, on a magnificent. run. The only downpoint was he had to pass to the supporting Scones with still some 25 meters to go, he showed the Goat how to finish by sprinting clear of the cover to score in the corner. Hodge again failed with the conversion but with the score up to 10-0 we were on a roll. However Ponty had other ideas and began to use their big pack to good effect the last 10 minutes off the half saw a superb Aber defence repulse everything thrown at them. One particular phase saw a huge hit by Owain smash their centre, inspired by this Hodge was next nailing the outside half, Ding was next smashing someone else and the whole period was finished off by Tom superbly turning the ball over allowing Alex to clear the ball. The period ended with Ponty bodies littered everywhere and the first half ended with the 10 point lead preserved.
HT 10-0 to the Aber.
Ponty had a big bench and they immediately looked to put some of their big guns on, however they had little effect as Aber stormed forward taking the game by the scruff of the neck the backs were again to the fore Dewi and Doc making several good breaks and a try was imminent. It came after a scintillating break off a scrum by the quicksilver Cons he sped down the touchline leaving opponents in his wake. When it seemed the cover had him bur Hodge sped by took the ball with him and cruised over the line for our third try a superb effort unlike his conversion!!! Ponty weren't finished though and with more re-inforcements pushed on again, we seemed to have annoyed the ref who gave several harsh decisions once penalising Cellan for being offside when he was closer to the Rheola than the offsideline and Ponty used these penalties to camp in our half. Jack Holland made the most of the sparse ball in this period and looked exciting with ball in hand showing some co-ordination with ball in hand which he didn't putting his sub suit on and yes ill admit after laughing at him i had to get Pepsi to help me put mine on!! The ref soon gave Alex Daniels a yellow card for being a doormat to a good old fashioned shoeing and Ponty opened their account soon after with an unconverted try. There soon followed more pressure as the large replacements from Ponty slammed forward and got a bit naughty with the boot and fist. It soon got very naughty as the forwards became embroiled in a bit of fisticuffs and even the weather turned sour by starting to snow. Now to say the game was in the balance might be stretching it but our bonus point was in question as the fourth try seemed unlikely to come. Sades thought it through and decided the only thing to counteract the increased Ponty aggression and invigorate the forward effort was to unleash the beast and on i went (actually Ding was injured so he had no choice!). After settling the boys it was another sub Pepsi who prompted several attacks that eventually saw Dewi take the ball close before offloading to Alex Williams who crossed for a try in the corner. Alex failed to convert but had previously added a penalty and that proved to be the final score as the game petered out for a well deserved win 23-5 to the Aber.
An excellent effort boys and a well deserved first win of the season, my mom would be the evergreen Rhodri Pyart who on a shitty day when you needed to stand up and be counted put his body on the line all day putting in tackle after tackle. I can't think of any twat on the field but Pepsi must take it for his Movember effort to quote Sades whilst the Goats tash makes him look like a massive pervert unless you get wothin 6 inches of Pepsi you can't see his!!
Whilst the firsts were getting a well deserved win despite a Herculean effort the youth went down to a more experienced Dulais Valley team. They even had a traditional youth all in and kept fighting all day despite losing. However whichever spanner thought having a razor was a good dummy club clearly was having a laugh. After Trystan tucked Nathan up in the drinks compo they decided to let Dewi and the Goat practice their barber skills on them. Something which im sure most of them will regret tomorrow and may even make Thompson a few quid on Monday night as he has to tidy up their efforts. Most of them seemed to be minus eyebrows and even though Will now looks as bonkers as he is without his im sure there will be some looking in the mirror tomorrow morning and thinking oh my god what was i thinking last night!!! Top effort though boys and at least you kept me entertained!!!

** Courtesy of Ralph Lewis