Rumney v Newport Saracens 30.04.05

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

Referee : Reg Hughes, Tredegar

Scorers for Rumney : T.Daley try, P.Carlton penalty

Scorers for Newport Saracens : M.Woods try, M.Lovell try, G.Mason penalty

Promotion candidates Newport Saracens came up against a very determined and ever improving Rumney side on a fine spring evening at Riverside Park. The home side kept the visitors on the backfoot and penned in their own half for the opening period with scrum half Lee Miller disrupting opposition ball and outside half  Andrew Carlson carefully controlling play. Early handling errors stopped Rumney from scoring but good tackling prevented any Saracens breakouts, until the tenth minute when outside half Gary Mason opened the scoring with a successful penalty. The Rumney pack was in fine form from the start with prop Charles Gale finding gaps and drawing in tacklers, No8 Stuart Coles driving forward, and prop Paul Douglas and hooker Colin O'Donoghue both making lengthy gains and proving very difficult to stop. Ryan Sutton, Emyr James and Michael Kelly dominated the lineouts and supplied excellent possession, but the inability of the team to convert it into points was already something of a worry and in the twenty second minute Saracens' dynamic centre Morgan Lovell scooped up a loose ball near his own goal line and sprinted the length of the field for an outstanding solo try, increasing the lead to 0 - 8. Rumney immediately went back on the offensive with more power play from flanker Ryan Fenton and second row James, but more handling errors prevented tries being finished and when the Saracens conceded a series of penalties, Carlson slotted a twenty eighth minute kick for a 3 - 8 scoreline. The outside half soon had to leave the field with a facial injury, but Rumney continued to press with Gale, Coles and O'Donoghue again breaking through and a brilliant run by Sutton all taking play close to the visitors' try line but failing to produce points because of last minute handling errors and turnovers. The half came to an end with the Saracens exerting a period of sustained pressure and Rumney keeping them out with a solid defensive line.

The opening of the second half again found the Rumney forwards in charge, Douglas and Kelly putting in more hard graft and threequarters Anthony Jones, Matthew Miller, and Joey Offside running any possession and turning defence into attack. The visitors capitalised on more handling errors and in the sixtieth minute took a close range tapped penalty to set up a controlled rolling maul which was finished off by a touchdown from flanker Matthew Woods. Rumney full back Phil Carlton came close to scoring with another excellent break but in the sixty fifth minue O'Donoghue, Kelly and James drove upfield and sparked a threequarter movement which involved neat work by outside half Luke Khan, and Fenton drawing in three defenders, creating space for wing Tom Daley to cross in the corner for a spectacular try. Newport Saracens consequently tightened their defence and repulsed more Rumney attacks, running out winners at 8 - 13.

Steve Ford, Coach Rumney 1st XV : "In the pre-match talk I mentioned that in the Brynmawr game our set piece was not good and I emphasised that the boys had to turn up today against Newport Saracens' big pack, so the warm up was intense and quiet because we knew we were in with a good chance. The first half was great, we stole the lineouts and the ruck and maul was good, we had three or four lines five metres out but then we spilled it and the Saracens' centre Morgan Lovell ran the length of the field, costing us seventy five metres and five points. The character of the Rumney side is superb, we had all the set pieces but lost it through a couple of silly mistakes, and the determination of the boys doesn't show true in the results, we looked like a top of the table side tonight and the most disappointing thing is that we gave our all, from one to fifteen nobody had a bad game, but we are so naive in certain parts of the field and tend to panic once we have gone past three or four phases. We must not give away fifty-fifty ball and although the result did not go our way, this was a very pleasing performance, there were loads of positives and we have got to build on it, my job is to keep the boys upbeat and positive, it was ten out of ten for everybody today, you can not ask for anything more. Colin O'Donoghue had a great game back, Ryan Sutton was excellent in the lineout and Ryan Fenton was the Man of the Match."

Stuart Coles, Captain and No8 Rumney 1st XV : "It is just really disappointing to have lost a game we should have won, everyone talks about the Saracens' pack but tonight we outplayed them in all areas and simply didn't take our chances, if we had done so we could have been out of sight. The front row was outstanding, Ryan Sutton was excellent in the line and everyone in the pack deserves a mention - a lot of people expected us to come unstuck upfront and we did not."

Stuart Coles