|
Page 1 of 2 Pontypridd U9’s 30 Mountain Ash U9’s 5 Mountain Ash arrived in Ponty to a cold, blustery and showery greeting, both teams were unbeaten so far this season and as such the dark clouds mirrored the sense of apprehension amongst the supporters prior kick off. It was nice to see however, rivalries put aside and the teams unite for a minute’s silence in recognition of sad and sombre times gone past. The boys have been building their performances throughout the season and as Callum ‘Tucker’ Hall led his players onto the pitch, everyone was hoping they could continue their development today.
Mountain Ash kicked off, and as both sets of supporters shouted encouragement to their players, Mountain Ash charged into Ponty to try and gain the upper hand early on. Ponty are not the biggest team around, but have shown that through their teamwork and tremendous will to win they can match physicality with most teams. Today was no exception, they withstood the early onslaught, retained the ball and following several rucks, Lloyd Owens sprinted half the length of the pitch like a whippet to put Ponty ahead after 2 minutes. Even when without the ball Ponty are always looking to attack, and for the rest of the first half they tackled and rucked and out muscled their opponents at every opportunity, twice driving them back over their own tryline. Mountain Ash bravely tried to hold out but the pressure was relentless and first Griff ‘Greased Lightning’ Lloyd and then captain Callum ‘Tucker’ Hall went over from short range to make the score 15 – 0 at half time. The first half had been an arm wrestle, and even though Ponty did not have the ball for long periods of time their swarming attacking defence made sure their opponents could not escape from the shadow of their own line, the entire Ponty team showing without exception desire, determination and ferocity in the tackle. The game all but won now saw the obligatory large-scale changes at half time, ensuring all the squad saw some game time. Within a minute of the re-start Jay ‘Pocket Battleship’ Jones showed power and pace to keep up his exemplary try scoring record. Yet again Ponty’s Achilles heal was exposed as Mountain Ash replied straight from the re-start with a fine long range solo effort to ensure they stayed in the game and gave their supporters a glimmer of hope of a come back. As in the first half, Ponty piled on the pressure and to their credit Mountain Ash responded as positively as they could. The fine free flowing rugby Ponty have tried to play all season had disappeared, their passing game was forgotten, replaced by a powerful driving and rucking game which again paid dividends on 15 minutes when Carl Blacker darted through the Mountain Ash defence for Ponty’s fifth. Again, from the re-start Mountain Ash threatened to reply in kind and only a last ditch tackle from Rhys ‘Little’ Britton stopped a certain try. The teamwork and organisation of the Ponty team were a little ragged by now, but their determination and passion were not and just before full time Iwan Cavil capped a fine victory with Ponty’s sixth and final try. Their unbeaten record continues, and today they showed they have power to match the skill and finesse shown previously, now they need to combine the two sides of their game for an entire match. Mountain Ash had battled for the whole game and contributed enormously to a thoroughly entertaining and powerful game of rugby, and special mention must go the referee who was superb in his handling of the game and interpretation of the rules, looking to play advantage whenever possible.
 Add as favourites (28) |  Quote this article on your site | Views: 420
|
![BBCi: Javascript is not available on this browser](http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/shared/bsp/hi/services/htmlsyndication/img/synd_js_error_js-inactive.gif")
