Thursday, September 13, 2012

Rugby Notes

Strange rugby days.

Narberth beat last season’s Div 1 West champions Tata Steel last week, so should have been a tough game. But Ebbw Vale won well 45-16 on Saturday without looking very good. Perhaps we’re used to watching Ebbw win and win well each week and so we’ve become greedy. But there was plenty for the coaches to work on: sloppy ball retention, some struggles in the scrum, and a few penalties given away.

Outstanding was No. 8 Spencer Gibson, whose running with ball in hand scared the bejesus out of the Narberth team. The rest of the back row, Ronny Keynes and Cameron Reagan were excellent too. Matthew Williams, “Chunky”, was a good cool-headed captain who appeared to leave the pack leader duties to the ever-solid Ross Jones.

The centre partnership of Josh Lewsi and Polo Uhi looked strong, whilst Dan Haymond at outside half connected well and scored a belting individual try. By the end the Narberth full back resembled a rather shell-shocked turnstile.

Tries for Dan Haymond, Polo Uhi, Josh Lewis, Ashley Sweet, Cameron Regan and sub Jamie Jones, all six tries goaled by Dan Haymond who also kicked a penalty.

Match reports feature on both the Ebbw Vale RFC website and the WRU’s, and there are lots of pics on the ebbwplayers website taken by Robbo (get well, Gra – I had to tell him to take lens cap off again).

Next up is a tough game away at Tata Steel (is it Ta-ta or Ta-tar?) down in PaTalbutt.

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