Rumney : 15.M.Milsom 14.H.Amadife 13.A.Jones 12.S.McIntyre 11.I.McIntyre 10.A.Harding (Capt) 9.B.Morris 1.P.Tennet 2.M.Feneck  3.M.Gee  4.C.Jones  5.M.Kelly  6.N.Coles 7.P.Bull 8.C.Barker  Replacements : P.O'Neill D.Bartlett P.Corcoran N.Ritchie A.McCormack P.Niblett C.Miller

Scorers for Rumney : A.Jones try, P.Bull try, P.Tennet try, M.Milsom try, I.McIntyre try, A.Harding penalty, B.Morris conversion

Scorers for Treorchy : C.Ledger try, M.Stoddard penalty

Referee : Howard Hopkins, Blackwood

The Treorchy Oval offered a surprisingly firm surface considering the heavy rain of the previous days, and conditions actually favoured Rumney's running game, allowing them to add five tries to the six they had scored the Saturday before. After an even opening period the visitors settled and started to put together good handling movements, taking the lead after five minutes through an Adam Harding penalty. From the restart Rumney scrum half Ben Morris launched further attacks, his characteristic rapid pass setting flanker Paul Bull loose and bringing the threequarters into play. Treorchy were also always ready to attack but when Rumney centre Stuart McIntyre broke through their defences, co-centre Anthony Jones was on hand to power his way over from thirty metres out for the opening try, leaving tacklers in his wake. Five minutes before the interval Rumney second row Chris Jones was sent off by referee Howard Hopkins and play swung back and forth with Treorchy putting together a number of good handling movements, but in the fortieth minute Rumney centre Jones's clever inside flick put Bull into space and the lock devestated the opposing defence, sprinting from inside his own half to score a brilliant try.

The second half started with Treorchy outside half Morgan Stoddard landing a penalty to bring the score to 3 - 13 but they were denied tries by strong defence work from Henry Amadife, Paul Niblett Matthew Milsom. Chris Miller replaced the injured Rumney captain Adam Harding at outside half and in partnership with Morris, launched a series of touchline attacks. With the mobile front row of Peter Tennet, Michael Feneck and Matthew Gee working closely together and forcing the home side to concede further penalties, a set move on the Treorchy five metre line led to flanker Neil Coles driving forward and slipping the ball to Tennet who cleverly smuggled the ball over the try line to score. Under further pressure at forward, Treorchy conceded more penalties allowing the visitors to obtain a line out five metres out. Michael Kelly and Bull had done well in the lines all afternoon and this time Bull gathered and drove forward to set up a good platform from which to recycle the ball. Morris' and Millers' snap long passes put Milsom into space and the full back burst through for a well constructed try, converted by Morris. No8 Carl Barker was proving very difficult to contain and one of his forward drives, supported by Feneck, Gee and Miller took play deep into Treorchy territory. The subsequent ruck ball gave possession to Morris whose remarkable reverse flick pass to Ian McIntyre sent the powerful winger steaming through for another well made try. Neal Ritchie came on and the hard grafting hooker kept play going forward and also put in important tackles, while Gee and Tennet held the scrums solid and worked well in the loose. Bull and Kelly continued to dominate the lines out and the fresh legs of Paddy O'Neill and Andy McCormack kept Rumney strong in defence, but in the seventy fifth minute Treorchy succeeded in stretching the defence and Chris Ledger crossed for a corner try. There were no further scores and Howard Hopkin's final whistle brought the proceedings to a close with a final score of Treorchy 8 Rumney 30.

Jim O'Brien, Rugby Secretary Rumney RFC : "Another very good performance from Rumney, the forwards were tremendous especially when we were reduced to fourteen players, they were the Magnificent Seven. Having said that, lots of chances did go abegging."

Matthew Milsom, full back Rumney 1st XV : "We were lacking in structure at first but after twenty minutes we did settle down. We then had the disadvantage of having a man sent off , but we kept the ball and scored a few nice tries. My try came from a good pass from Chris Miller who sucked in the Treorchy defence, there was a lot of running off the ball, the gap opened up and I went through to score."

Matthew Milsom

Wales On Sunday, 25.01.04