Fixture

Tidu – sorry Tondu

Old football cliché I know but this was quite simply a game of two halves.  Tondu are a respected and well drilled outfit, historically we have always had a ding dong battle with the boys from Bridgend and today was to be true to form.  The away team came out of the blocks and stamped their authority on the game while our boys carried on lacing up their boots, maybe there was a slight hangover from the demands of Saturday’s district trials but that should not be a reason or excuse for a below standard opening performance.  Tondu looked strong and attacked at every opportunity, mix into that a defensive line that resembled a wet Rizla and scores were inevitable.  In fact four tries were run in and duly converted by Tondu in the opening 20min.  Above all Tondu were much more aggressive and smarter around the tackle area, they prevented the boys in green from making any headway and it was two hard-worked tries that kept the Caerphilly outfit within range.  With no lineouts in the first half and few infringements by both teams it meant the ball was in play for large periods and this must have led to an edgy and tense spectacle for the Caerphilly faithful.

The halftime team talk was honest and packed a few punches, everyone knew that the key to getting back into this game was that each and every player needed to be far more physical and accurate in their work.  From the kick off there was a sense of revival and the true character, skill and team ethos came out like an embarrassing rash all over this squad of players.  There were some individual players that took control of this game which created a vacuum, dragging along some more than capable followers.  The breakdown was contested far more often and was much smoother on our own ball, this allowed us to play and set alight the firepower behind.  Three unanswered tries were put on the board with two conversions putting the numerical advantage in favour of cheese-men.  It’s becoming a trait of this under  11’s side that when asked to they will pull out all of the stops and will do it for each other, if there were a statistician on the side line then all facets of the game would have been heavily in favour of the home side in the final 20min.  All in all this was a very good win and could have been more convincing with a few chances squandered towards the end, however it does show that there is some hard work to be done to maintain the momentum that is expected by all.  Another great start to the season continuing where we left off at under 10’s.

Tries were scored by, Huw Anderson (3) and Matthew Amond Steadman (2) while Huw and Harri Davies bagged the conversions.

Huw Anderson - receiving the commitment award. – Da Iawn