Fixture

As a mark of respect, there was an observed minute’s silence in memory of ex-Taff’s Well Youth Captain and second team player Damian Atkins who tragically died of illness this week. He was not only a talented player, he was a great friend to many who represent the club today and club secretary Jill Watkins delivered a poignant tribute to his memory and standing as a father, friend and player to the amassed players and spectators. The club’s thoughts firmly remain with his wife and two young children.

The game today was the 3^rd round of the WRU Bowl which led to Taff’s Well ending as beaten finalists at the Millennium Stadium earlier this year and the path to repeating the feat this was being blocked by the students of Cardiff Medicals RFC who have the distinction of having the likes of Jamie Roberts and Welsh Captain Gwyn Jones represent them. Although understrength, the students could not be taken likely although it was an altogether different looking team that ran out on the park for the home side with Martin Detorres selected at his preferred position of outside centre, fullback Ronan Barrett at outside-half, centre Justin Jones at scrum-half and second row Ieuan Parsons at flanker which when looked at in the cold light of day turned out to be inspired selections!

The open minutes resembled a familiar pattern of recent weeks with passes not quite going to hand as the new combinations sought to settle in but no one could question the ambition as wingers Gavin Close and Mike Lindon looked dangerous when they managed to get their hands on the ball. Taff’s Well were already on top in the scrums and were disrupting the student’s line-out but the opening try was a classic outside centre effort as Martin Detorres scythed around his opposite number to sprint downfield to score under the posts for Ronan Barrett to convert. It didn’t take long for the hosts to add to their opening score as a well worked back move brought Gavin Close into the line to enable him to run on a curved arc and cover over 60m for another fine try – no conversion this time.

Although still quite scrappy, outside half Ronan Barrett was starting to get into the game and following a neat break, he followed his own kick & chase to touch down for a 17-0 lead as the conversation failed. The students were giving all they could but could not get enough penetration to threaten the Taff’s Well defence and it was no surprise that from an attacking scrum, No8 Max Watkins crossed for his opening try but another missed conversion made the score 22– 0. Another player starting to catch the eye was ubiquitous flanker Ieuan Parson who tore down the left wing and although stopped with a great tackle, gave an equally great pop-up pass to fullback Richie Lovering who went over for a fifth try before the break only for another conversion to be missed. From this point the students started to get some possession and managed to get some territory in the Taff’s Well 22 but after a succession of attacking scrums and penalties, an organised home defence led to a dropped pass in midfield for Martin Detorres to clear the danger.

                        Half time score:   Taff’s Well 27 – 0 Cardiff Medicals

                                                       Second-half

The Taff’s Well forwards were unpicking the visitor’s linouts and dominating the scrums but the students were doing incredibly well to win their own ball and manage to get it away from the set-piece although they were struggling to get wide under pressure. Following type, the home side again attacked the student’s defence enabling Gavin Close to go in for his second try but miss the opportunity to convert his own effort (can you see a pattern emerging?). With hooker Lloyd James nailing his throw-ins and flanker Rhys Watkins showing up well in defence, Rhys decided to have a crack at attack and following some fine movement down the left, he popped up in support to receive a scoring pass to go over for his side’s seventh try and yes, you’ve guessed it – the conversion went wide, the score now at 37-0.

Ronan Barrett had settled in well at his new position of outside-half with some good intelligent kicking, tackling and reading of the game and to the delight of the crowd he broke and turned on the after-burners to outflank the student defence a go over for a fine individual effort which…umm - went unconverted, 42-0. Having tackled well and kicked well out of hand, Gaving Close burst through the cover defence to enable full-back Richie Lovering to go over for his second try of the afternoon and get this - the conversion by Ieuan Parsons went over, much to the delight of both Ieuan and the home crowd! 49-0 to Taff’s Well.

The hosts were in no mood to drop the pressure with Max Watkins revelling in returning the kick—offs with interest and despite several substitutions, were back on the attack with some slick passing along the line leading to an promising position in the students 22 and together with some neat off-loading - reliable workhorse and second rower Jonathan Barry went sent over for his name to go on the score sheet with Ieuan Parsons getting his radar right for a successive conversion. With the game a lost cause in terms of a result, the students did well to pick on some shoddy Taff’s Well passing with their centre scooping the ball up and diving over for a deserving try to open the visitors account on the day, duly converted for a severner and 56-7.

With enough time left on the clock, the home side kept up the pressure as the students tired and another Gavin Close break let in Max Watkins for his second try of the game but no luck with the conversion this time I’m afraid. Even though the ball was being thrown around, there was a definite outbreak of white-line fever in the air which took some shape out of the game but there was still even time for the backs to put together some superb passing together and send a short pass to Gavin Close to crash through for his third try of the bout and put the score at 66-7. Speaking of bout, in an game which was played totally within The Marquess of Queensberry rules, it came as a total surprise when an altercation broke out and prop Ben Atkin was shown red for his part in the affair to take the shine of an otherwise highly entertaining affair, looks like nothing learned from last week there then The game played out without much excitement from either side and I guess you could say it got ‘scrappy’ in every sense of the word, a comfortable passage for Taff’s Well into the next round and a gallant effort from an under strength student side.

Final score:  Taff's Well 66 - 7 Cardiff Medicals

The Verdict

The Taff’s Well coaching team raised several eyebrows with their starting XV as several players were picked out of positions where we are used to seeing them but you have to say that they all pretty much came off so hats off there guys; so let’s get the good stuff out of the way first. The whole pack as a unit went well as you would expect and dominated the scrums and lineouts to give the backs some quality ball to test out some new combinations.  Justin Jones at scrum-half cajoled the forwards well and looked to get Ronan Barrett into the game with the latter having a particularly good first 60 minutes with two well taken tries and the coaches continue to blood new players with prop Dai ‘Digger’ Quin showing up well in a short cameo stint.

The whole three-quarter line looked threatening with Gavin Close rattling up three tries and putting in some big hits in defence to stifle anything the students looked to do out wide positively but for my man-of-the-match, I’m going to go for flanker Ieuan Parsons who managed to get just about everywhere and tee-up his teammates for a number of tries so I don’t think he would have paid for his beer last night. Unfortunately, I wasn’t quick enough to get a debrief with the student’s coach so no name checks available but they didn’t give up even though they were out-muscled and the standout for them would have to be their No6 blindside flanker.

On the downside for Taff’s Well, everyone seemed to have a kick at goal apart from the bar staff which may be of concern come the tight matches and the discipline continues to be a talking point with a sending off in the dying minutes and several penalties for back-chat - still, it can’t be bad if you’re having a moan and you just won 66 – 7!

Match Photo Gallery

Dave Beese    davecbwales@gmail.com

Match report:  Sully 2nd XV 5 v 52 Taff's Well 2nd XV 

Match report: Dinas Powys XV 12 v 34 Taff's Well Youth XV