Fixture

Pontrhydyfen RFC welcomed Fall Bay RFC to the Oakwood playing fields on a beautiful sunny afternoon for the last league game of the season. Fall Bay had to start the game with uncontested scrums as they couldn’t field a full front row.

Ponty kicked-off with the sun at their backs, and right from the start, won the ball and drove deep in to the Fall Bay half where they stayed until Jon ‘Doug the Destroyer’ Thomas picked up the ball at the base of a ruck and crossed the Fall Bay try line with three defenders on his back, converted by Morgan Kennerley 7-0. This was to set the tone for the rest of the game.

From the restart Ponty forced Fall Bay back deep on their try line and the ball was turned over and the Ponty passed across the backline for full back Warren Davies, on the end of a lovely floated pass, go over for a try in the corner, unconverted 12-0. Next on the score sheet was winger Alex Fitzpatrick after Rhys Curtis made good yards running down the blindside, the ball recycled quickly for Alex to cross, unconverted 17-0 in as many minutes and it now looked like it was going to a long afternoon for Fall Bay.

From the restart Josh Ford caught the ball and broke through the tackles of Fall Bay forwards and carried the ball into their half, unfortunately for Josh had to leave the field with an ankle injury and was replaced by Tom Dryden. From the resulting stoppage Fall Bay were awarded a scrum and a miss pass from the Fall Bay fly-half saw Morgan Kennerley intercept to go unopposed under the posts, converted by him 24-0 and the bonus point already secured.

Credit to Fall Bay that they didn’t leave their heads drop and from the restart drove into the Ponty forwards and forced a turnover and found big gap in the Ponty defence for the Fall Bay centre to sprint through to score 24-5.

Next to score was Ponty’s livewire hooker Curtis Warlow when from a ruck 40 yards out he sprinted through a gap in the Fall Bay defence and was tackled 5 yards short of the try line but was not held in the tackle and managed to quickly get to feet and cross the whitewash before the covering defenders, converted try.

Half-time Pontrhydyfen 31 Fall Bay 5

Fall Bay kicked off and straightaway Ponty, now intent on throwing the ball around, passed it to the backs and made good yards up the right-side touchline and from the resulting attack saw Alex Fitzpatrick claim his second try, which was converted 38-5.  

Now with game already won, the coaches decided to use the bench, on came Sean Ford who replaced Jamie Miller in the centre and a reshuffle saw starting 9 Mark Davies move to wing for Alex Fitzpatrick to switch to 9.

And almost straightaway Sean Ford was on the score sheet when he was at the end of a lovely interpassing move, saw him round the defence to score under the posts, score now 45-5.

Next on score sheet back rower Tom Davies, again good support play to be on the end of another great interpassing move, going over between the posts to score, again converted by Morgan to take the score over the 50 point mark, score now 52-5.

Enter the fray, veterans Jason Hole and Chris hook in the forwards. And the onslaught continued for Fall Bay, another great break by Morgan Kennerley saw Warren Davies pop up in support to receive the final pass and in the process grab him a second try, converted again, score 59-5.

Not to be outdone, winger Dan Owen wanted a piece of the action and veteran prop Jason would be the provider, Jason wearing 24, is never far away from the fly-half position received the pass in his own half to draw the man and deliver the perfect pass to Dan Owen, who still had plenty to do beating 3 Fall Bay defenders, to cross under the posts, score now 66-5.

Again credit to Fall Bay for not throwing in the towel, finished the second half with a converted try of their own, final score 66-12 in an entertaining game which was end to end attacking rugby by both teams.

Final word, I won’t mention any names for risk of upsetting someone I may have forgot, but I’m extremely proud of everyone involved for the huge improvements on and off the field this season, massive thanks to all the coaches, players, committee, juniors & minis and all the others working in the background to make Pontrhydyfen RFC a great club to be part of, you all know who you are.

Give yourself all a huge pat on the back for another great and successful season.

Onwards and upwards, next season we improve AGAIN and top the league!

Full-time Pontrhydyfen 66 Fall Bay 12

In all competitions Pontrhydyfen played:

23 games, Won 13, Lost 10, Points for 482, Points against 390, Tries 68