By Alan John
4th January 2020
Llandaff North -v- Cefn Coed
Score 17 – 17
The first 10 minutes saw our Pack hammering away at the Cefn Coed line and winning several scrums then someone
in the Cefn Coed team disagreed with the Referee’s decision but foolishly voiced his opinion resulting in the Referee
changing from Scrum to Penalty. JORDAN thanked the disgruntled player by kicking the points. 3 – 0
Cefn Coed came back at us with ” all guns blazing ” and we spent 10 minutes under constant pressure in our own 22 .Our
defence held out until one of our players ” could not keep his mouth shut ” ( XX!!??XX!! ) resulting in giving away a penalty.
Fortunately for us their kicker missed the posts.
Our opponents did not ease up on their attacks, but, despite constant pressure, our defence remained strong, repelling their
forays and finally clearing the ball to our 22, where a fight broke out. I was unsighted at the other end of the pitch, but, at
least it was a Cefn Coed player who was given his ” marching orders ” and 10 minutes in the ” Sin Bin “.
They attacked again and we conceded a penalty PLUS 10 METRES ( another comment to referee ( !!?XX?XX )., but, again
their kicker was off-target.
Whilst our Pack were the better in the “tight” they did not experience the overall superiority of previous games.and Cefn
Coed excelled in the ” Loose ” . The half time score of 3 – 0 did not indicate the hard battles of both teams.
Early in the second half we were attacking and tried to kick the ball along the ground but, unfortunately it re-bounded off one
of their players with their charging through to score. 3 – 5
They continued to press and a kick took them to 15 metres from our line, but we were able to win three consecutive scrums
and relieve the pressure.. We then charged up field with the ball passing through several hands until we were awarded a
scrum 15 metres from their line.The Pack remembered how good they can be and drove their opponents backwards
with our witnessing the ” SHAPPS SHUFFLE ” to score. JORDAN adding the conversion. 10 – 5
Then came the ” Bane of my Rugby Life ( ” !!XXX!! ) UNCONTESTED SCRUMS ( “XX??XXZXXX!! )
WHY is it that when we have the upper hand in Scrummages the IMPETUS is taken from us ????
Cefn Coed attack === Uncontested Scrum ===== Attack score a try converted 10 – 12
Repeat above comments with score out wide but, thankfully, no conversion 10 – 17
After scoring a third try, and with only a few minutes left, Cefn Coed thought that they had won the match —– BUT —–
this NORTH TEAM does NOT GIVE IN !!!!!!!
We immediately attacked and whilst Jordan was “laid out” for a few minutes after a crunching tackle, we continued to
batter their line with several players trying to score before JOSH ( G ) crashed through their defence to score. At this point
all of the supporters held their breath / crossed their fingers / prayed / as JORDAN ( who a couple of minutes earlier was
standing on shaky feet, ) held his nerve and kicked the conversion . 17 – 17
WELL PLAYED BOYS !!! A draw was a fair result for two BATTLING TEAMS ONWARDS AND UPWARDS
=============================================================================================
LESSON :- The Referee is in charge !!!! This game saw 6 or 7 occasions where players GAVE AWAY Penalties because
they could not shut up.. The Referee is like your MOTHER !! whether she is right or wrong, as far as you are concerned
she is RIGHT. !!!!
======================================================================== ====================
Special mention for the hardest worker on the field !!!!!
Keith our physiotherapist.
Leave a Reply