Fixture

After a barren month of rugby Virginia Park played host to 2 games however both Caerphilly teams suffered heartache last weekend. The 1^st XV went down to a controversial last minute try at the hands of Chepstow, whilst the 2^nd XV endured a 1 point defeat at the hands of Rhydyfelin, suffering their first defeat of the season.

Caerphilly enjoyed the best of the 1st quarter with wave after wave of attacks at Chepstow, but failed to break through for the all important score, their set play proving to be their nemesis as they failed on several occasions to secure their own ball. However it was the home side that took the lead after a quarter hour mark. Building pressure centre Chris Thomas broke through the centre but was tackled high producing a penalty chance for Full back Simon Skinner who made no mistake, slotting the ball between the uprights.

5 minutes later, outside half and captain Nathan Gittings made a good break from his own 22, taking play deep into Chepstow territory. Recycling possession, the ball was spread wide and Skinner was on hand to stumble over the line in the corner, leaving a difficult conversion, which, again, he slotted nicely between the uprights.

With Caerphilly struggling in the set play Chepstow made in grounds into the Caerphilly defence and eventually won a penalty in front the posts on 25 minutes as the home defence was caught offside. Caerphilly lost Will Worthington on30 minutes having taken a knee to the head laying him unconscious on the floor, returning winger Michael Lynch replacing the stricken centre.

With neither side scoring during the second quarter of the game, the half time score read 10-3. However Caerphilly were to struggle further early in the second half. Another enforced change at half time saw points scorer Skinner forced to retire from the game, and with only 1 on the bench Caerphilly were forced to move a back rower into the backs. Just 10 minutes into the second half   Lynch was also forced from the field. Attempting to collect a high ball on the Chepstow line, the replacement failed to collect the ball cleanly and instead knocked on whilst dislocating a finger on his right hand. With another forward forced into the centre, the home side struggled to move around with any vigour.

Two try saving tackles by Gittings in the last 10 minutes kept the home side in the game until a catch and drive yielded dividends for the visitors as no.8 Andrew Morris was on hand at the back of a driving maul cross the whitewash. The difficult kick was missed by full back Scott Arkley as the home side maintained a narrow 10-8 lead.

Endless pressure from the visitors led to series of penalties before controversial decision was made to award yet another penalty after Caerphilly appeared to drive the visitors from their own ball on the 5mtr line. The referee however adjudged that the home side had killed the ball and awarded another kick that produced another catch and drive and an injury time try for the visitors the wide difficult kick from Arkley went through the sticks and the visitors had snatched victory with the last play of the game 

Next Week Caerphilly travel to Monmouth, whilst the 2^nd team entertain Builth Wells 2nds. Caerphilly Youth entertain Brynmawr at home. All Kick off’s 2:30pm.