| Caerphilly 10 Beddau 17 |
| Swalec League Division 1 East |
| Half-time score: Caerphilly 7 Beddau 0 |
| Date: Saturday 6th March 2010 |
| Kick-off time: 2.30pm |
| Referee: - Mr Jason Langdon (Bridgend) |
| Weather: Cloudy |
| Match Report by Mark Tamplin |
“This is a huge month for the club, starting today”, these were the words of Coach Phil Ager in this weeks match day program. Well it would appear that the players failed to heed these words as they threw away a 7 point lead in this basement battle at Virginia Park. Indeed had it not been for numerous “Knock on’s” the scoreline would have been more as the Beddau side came out fighting for their league status. In fact, the game must have been one of Caerphilly’s worst performances of the season, when it should have been one of their best. A dull first quarter saw the sides exchanging poor handling skills, leading to a dull quarter. The game failed to warm until the 20th minute when Beddau had one of their props sin-binned for spoiling Caerphilly ball, entering from the side of a ruck with the home side 5mtrs from the line. This was referee Jason Langdon’s attempt to stop the constant infringing that took place around the tackle area. Well it failed, as both sides were guilty throughout the game. It did however help to bring about Caerphilly’s solitude try. With a man advantage in the set piece, the Caerphilly 8 drove to within inches of the line. Unable to control the ball at the base, the Beddau defenders broke from the scrum in anticipation of a number 8 pick up. The ball however had bobbled away from the control of Caerphilly’s Ethan Matthews, and unable to believe his eyes, scrum half Vaughan Thomas collected the loose ball and fall over the line to get the home side going. The ever dependable Dean Watkins stepping up to take the spoils, giving the home side a 7 point lead. Missed penalties for both sides were cancelled out, Watkins missing two kicks into the wind, and Beddau outside half also missing two kicks, the latter after a yellow card had been shown to Caerphilly’s Matt Strong. The second half started disastrously for the Castletown side. Running the ball wide from the kick off, Caerphilly were forced into a try saving tackle by full back Matthew Minty, inches from the line. With an extra man in the scum, the home side lost the ball against the head and with the visitors on the ascendancy a simple pass to outside half Mike Thomas produced a try for Beddau, Truelove adding the conversion to level the scores. Under the cosh for most of the second half, Caerphilly came away with 3 points on 63 minutes courtesy of the boot of Watkins. Breaking upfield, the Caerphilly pack forced Beddau to enter the ruck from the side in front of the posts on the 22, giving Watkins his easiest chance of the match. Beddau, however, levelled again. From the restart, Caerphilly cleared upfield, only for the visitors to launch a counter-clearance. Unfortunately the high ball was dropped by full back Matthew Minty, giving the visitors a scrum. Referee Langdon saw fit to award the visitors a penalty on the half way line, citing Caerphilly’s deliberate collapse of the scrum. Truelove stepped up to slot between the posts. Another mistake by Caerphilly on 70 minutes saw Truelove on the scoreboard again. Under no pressure, winger Paolo Alanzi dropped a high kick, giving the visitors an attacking scrum midway between the half way and 22. Securing another scrum ball, Beddau captain Rob Downes provided the platform for scrum half Rhys Edwards to launch the backs. With the Caerphilly defence rushing up, a clever kick ahead from Thomas saw the ball inch towards the line, where Truelove was available to dive over the line. Adding the 3 points, Beddau were now a score ahead with 8 minutes remaining. Caerphilly never recovered, but were given several opportunities deep into injury time to reduce the deficit, again, some poor handling letting the visitors escape and hold on for their victory. Caerphilly travel to Tredegar this Friday evening, hopefully, for their sakes, in a better frame of mind, ready for the hardest battle of their lives. Kick off 7.15pm |
| Caerphilly Team | Beddau Team | |
| Matthew Minty | 15 - Fullback | Rhys Truelove |
| Paolo Alanzi | 14 - Right-wing | Bradley Coombes |
| Dan Deardon | 13 - Outside-centre | Lewis Egal |
| Mark Addis | 12 - Inside-centre | Liam Thomas |
| Chris Thomas | 11 - Left-wing | Peter Connolly |
| Dean Watkins | 10 - Outside-half | Mike Thomas |
| Vaughan Thomas | 9 - Scrum-half | Rhys Edwards |
| Ethan Matthews | 8 - Number 8 | (C) Rob Downes |
| Gareth Davies | 7 - Openside-flanker | John Myatt |
| Matthew Strong | 6 - Blindside-flanker | Robert Jones |
| Chris Payne(C) | 5 - Second-row | Tommy Guy |
| Adam Minty | 4 - Second-row | Graham Hart |
| John Salter | 3 - Tighthead-prop | Simon Wilde |
| Luke Harwood | 2 - Hooker | Rhys Cleverly |
| Mike Webber | 1 - Loosehead-prop | Tim Lumm |
| - | - | |
| Geoff Lewin | Replacement | Gavin Richards |
| James Walby | Replacement | Rhys Godwen |
| Lewis Rawlins | Replacement | Brendan Lyons |
| Rhodri Usher | Replacement | Matthew Hunt |
| Steffan Sankala | Replacement | Dave Gilbert |
| Caerphilly Scorers | Beddau Scorers | |
| Vaughan Thomas (21 min) | Tries | Mike Thomas (44 min), Rhys Truelove (72 min) |
| Dean Watkins (22 min) | Conversions | Rhys Truelove (45&73 min) |
| Dean Watkins (63 min) | Penalties | Rhys Truelove (65 min) |
| - | Drop-goals | - |
| Matthew Strong (39 min) | Yellow cards | Simon Wilde (19 min) |
| - | Red Cards | - |