Rumney : 15.P.Carlton 14.J.Offside 13.P.Niblett (Capt) 12.A.Carlson 11.M.Miller 10.P.Nash  9.C.Miller 1.P.Douglas 2.C.O'Donoghue 3.C.Gale  4.J.Braine 5.M.Kelly 6.R.Sutton 7.R.Fenton 8.S.Coles Replacements : M.Feneck J.Leadbeater B.Phillips T.Daley

Nantymoel : 15.M.Richards 14.M.Chapman 13.G.Morgan 12.M.Jones 11.D.Trowbridge 10.M.Jones  9.J.Williams 1.G.Bayliss 2.M.Evans 3.J.Strang 4.B.James 5.I.Strang 6.L.Blower 7.K.James 8.D.Stacey (Capt)  Replacements : N.Clemmett S.Taylor I.Rees N.Davies

Referee : Mark Baker, Llanharan

Early Nantymoel pressure was soaked up by a determined Rumney defence and with No8 Stuart Coles driving from the back of the scrum, the home forwards soon worked their way upfield for outside half Paul Nash to kick a penalty which had been awarded for 'going in from the side'. Within minutes visiting right wing Mark Chapman had gathered a loose kick in his own half and blasted out wide down the wing evading tacklers and scoring under the posts. Mark Jones' conversion took Nantymoel into a 3 - 7 lead but Rumney tightened their defence and started pushing the opposition forwards backwards. Finding prop Charley Gale in outstanding form in the loose, flanker Ryan Sutton returning to his dominant position in the lineouts and lock Michael Kelly and hooker Colin O'Donoghue gaining territory at every opportunity, tries seemed inevitable and in the twentieth minute, with the Rumney pack camped on the visitors' try line, a steady forward drive was finished off when Coles controlled the ball expertly and chose his moment to ground it for his side's first try. Nash put over the conversion and Coles was straight back in action from the restart, claiming the high ball and putting Rumney back on the offensive, but Nantymoel were making few errors and threatening to strike again through counterattacks. Winger Matthew Miller, scrum half Chris Miller and full back Phil Carlton kicked well to relieve pressure and Carlton's magnificent tackle on Nantymoel fullback Mike Richards prevented a certain try, but it was a long kick out of defence by Nash that created confusion for the visiting defenders and Rumney's flying right wing gathered well to sprint in for a breakaway try under the sticks and a half time lead of 15 - 7.

The opening of the second half found Rumney in even sharper attacking mood and Carlton was unlucky not to score after making a searing break from his own twenty two. Gale and Coles continued to cause major problems for the visitors and flanker Ryan Fenton, prop Paul Douglas and lock Jamie Braine were clearly enjoying every chance to break forward and set up clean possession for the backs, both centres and wingers combining well and becoming increasingly threatening. In the sixtieth minute a scrum on half way was the start for another combined move between backs and forwards with Gale showing devestating form in midfield and setting up further phases from which centre Paul Niblett finally split the opposition and scored under the posts. Nash converted and from the drop out O'Donoghue gathered well and immediately went back on the attack, linking with Fenton and creating space for Matthew Miller to sprint upfield and offload to Nash who finished off the try and added the conversion points to put the home side 29 - 7 ahead. Resting on this substantial lead, Rumney were guilty of relaxing and Nantymoel took full advantage of this by launching a series of spirited attacks. In the sixty eighth minute a fine long range break by Chapman led to Captain David Stacey scoring a very good try and shortly before the final whistle centre Graham Morgan, who had shown good form all afternoon, touched down from close range to bring the score back to 29 - 17, but still giving Rumney the confidence building win that they had been waiting for.

Steve Ford, Coach Rumney 1st XV : "We trained hard on Tuesday and Thursday and changed the strategy to play with a smile on our faces, so my speech before the game was intended to take the pressure off. We still made a lot of mistakes in the first half and the score of 15 - 7 was not comfortable, we were making basic errors and silly passes and giving away penalties. At half time I was still quite worried but the first ten to fifteen minutes after the break were absolutely different, with spot-on passing and good scrums, lineouts and mauls. Sometimes we didn't take people out in the rucks but for twenty minutes we really played football and scored lovely tries. Today we didn't switch off when we scored, so for the first time this season we scored two tries on the trot and dug in well, Charley Gale was the Man of the Match. I'll take a win any day, the performance wasn't what we needed, but the result was and it will give us confidence, it was a win today but we must iron out mistakes. We had some bad news when we learned that following an injury, Carl Barker has been advised not to play rugby any more and this is a great blow to us as a club and team as he is such a great No8. Unfortunately he can not play again but we wish him all the best, Carl's going to be ok."

Stuart Coles, Forwards Coach and No8 Rumney 1st XV : "In many ways it is nice to get the monkey off our back and gain a victory. We struggled to get continuity and have probably played better and lost this season, but we did play well in patches and it is far easier to build on a win than a defeat. Our young players deserve a special mention, they were all dangerous in attack and defence. Charley Gale was superb in the tight and fully deserved his Man of the Match award."