By Zippy
February 18 2007

A review of the action in the 6th Round of the Konica Minolta Welsh Cup. Both Ponty and Bridgend progressed to the 1/4s with wins against Maesteg and St Peters respectively.

Pontypridd 37 Maesteg 9

By www.PontypriddRFC.co.uk - Rygbi Pontypridd - Official Website / Y Wefan Swyddogol - The Valleys' Premier Team.

A good second half, with some tries to savour, saw Pontypridd ease through into the quarter finals of the Konica Minolta Cup. Lawrence Price scored the first try after only three minutes had gone by. He followed up a kick ahead, and took advantage of a mistake by Maesteg on their five-metre line to pick up and fall over for the try. Neil Burnett missed the conversion and a kickable penalty a few minutes afterwards, but then kicked a penalty after twenty-five minutes to give the home side an eight-nil lead.

Neil’s penalty came a short while after a very unsavoury incident when Pontypridd’s scrum half Andrew Jenkins was laid out by a Maesteg elbow in the face. Unfortunately the blow was missed by the referee John Mason, standing just a couple of yards away, and by both his touch judges. Had it been seen then a red card for the miscreant must have followed. It was clearly seen by just about every other person on the ground, however, and although this writer did not see who the culprit was, the visiting scrum half Kevin Ellis was loudly booed for the rest of the game. Andrew was left stunned and bleeding heavily from the nose, and had to leave the field for attention.

Kristan Baller came on as a blood-replacement for the damaged Jenkins, just in time to see the game start to swing away from Pontypridd. A series of penalties awarded against the home side by Mr. Mason allowed Luke Richards to kick Maesteg into an 8-9 half time lead. This further incensed the home crowd, still seething over the Andrew Jenkins incident which had been missed by all the officials, and the booing shifted temporarily from Kevin Ellis to the referee.

Pontypridd had played with little fluency for the last quarter of an hour of the first half, and the only thing that lifted our supporters was the reappearance of Andrew Jenkins, much bloodied but very unbowed. One can imagine that Simon King and Paul John were not happy bunnies at this time, and the dressing room at half time would have been an uncomfortable place for many of the players.

The second half was a very different story. The Pontypridd pack had been strong throughout, and very much had the measure of their opposite numbers by now, despite the usual aggressive foraging by Ian Boobyer. Our backs were in a different class to the opposition as well, and they eventually started to prise open the flood gates. Dafydd Lockyer almost inevitably got the first try of the half after nine minutes, trotting in under the posts to give Burnett an easy conversion to make it 15-9 to Pontypridd. Dafydd was on hand again fifteen minutes later for another try under the posts, and the conversion and then a penalty by Neil Burnett made it 25-9 to the home side, and the Bob Bank relaxed.

The final quarter of the game was all Pontypridd, and the strategic use of all seven substitutes by the coaches did nothing to disrupt the fluency of the home side. Kristian Baller was on again now, this time as a substitute for winger Dan Hitchings, and it was he and full back Lawrence Price who lit up the final ten minutes of the game.

Kristian made the next try just about all on his own. Attacking down the right towards the clubhouse end, he took the ball on the half way line, ran, kicked, and just won the race to a touchdown this side of the dead ball line. Maesteg complained that he was over the line, and it certainly looked very close from the stand, but he more than deserved the try after his brilliant move. Although Neil Burnett just missed the very difficult conversion, Ponty were home and dry by 30-9 with seventy-two minutes gone on the clock. But more was to come.

The final try of the game was one of the best seen at Sardis Road for a very long time. Maesteg kicked the ball deep into our half, and Lawrence Price made an easy mark. Although he immediately set off on a run towards the twenty-two metre line, the referee called him back for the mark. One now expected Lawrence to kick the ball into touch, as we were into injury time. But the full back had other ideas.

Lawrence took a tap kick, and set off again for the twenty-two. Gliding past player after player in a manner reminiscent of Barry John at his best, he simply kept on running. Feinting to left and right, he mesmerised the defence, and was still running and in the clear when he crossed the halfway line. Screaming up on his right was Kristian Baller, and Lawrence drew the last defender and passed to him near the Maesteg twenty-two.

Kristian still had a bit of work to do as desperate defenders came running across to try to stop him. However, a neat sidestep to his left and terrific acceleration took him through the scrambling defence and over the line under the posts. Burnett kicked the simple conversion, and shortly afterwards the whistle went for full time with Ponty deserved winners by 37-9.

The fitness levels of the team really showed in the second half, and their powerful play frequently left a trail of Maesteg bodies on the floor. The second half scoreline of  29-0 told it all. Also, the fact that we could bring on players of the quality of Kristian Baller, Paul Mathews, Dale McIntosh, Ian Poley, Nick Eaves, Justin Jones and Lee Pearce meant that very good fresh legs were available in the last twenty minutes.

Andrew Jenkins deservedly won the man of the match award, playing throughout the second half with blood running from his damaged nose. All the backs played well, despite running into a resolute Maesteg defence in the first half, and the team was undoubtedly disrupted by the attack on Andrew in the middle of the half. When you think that a sharp eyed touch judge meant that Nathan Strong got a red card against Cross Keys a few weeks ago for an innocuous and alleged tap on an opponent, you begin to ponder on the fairness of it all. Life? Don’t talk to me about life!

Much of the talk in the Players Bar after the game was about Lawrence Price. When we lost Morgan Stoddart to the Scarlets at the end of last season nobody thought that we could find a replacement as good as he. Lawrence came to us as a centre, was injured before the season started and then injured again in his first appearance as a replacement, and then converted to an emergency full back and became a star. Not only does he offer strength in defence (remember his tackle on the Maesteg winger late in the second half?), but his attacking play is arguably at least as good as that of Stoddart. We always knew that our threequarters were good, but Lawrence gives us that extra attacker which breaks defences.

The pack too went well, with another new Pontypridd star standing out in attack and defence. Tu Tamarua fought for every ball, and fought against every body that Maesteg threw at him. In the end he just about battered himself into submission. Thank you very much to all the twenty two players who took to the field on Saturday. You were a credit to this grand old club of ours.

The Pontypridd team was:

15. Lawrence Price; 14. Dan Hitchings (rep. Kristian Baller), 13. Gavin Dacey (rep. Paul Mathews), 12. Dafydd Lockyer, 11. Chris Clayton; 10. Neil Burnett, 9. Andrew Jenkins (rep. Kristian Baller [blood]);

1. Stuart Williams (rep. Nick Eaves), 2. Leighton Davies (rep. Lee Pearce), 3. Ryan Harford (rep. Ian Poley), 4. Grant Harrington (rep. Grant Harrington), 5. Damien Welch, 6. Lee Evans, 7. Tu Tamarua (rep. Justin Jones), 8. Nathan Strong (Captain).

Pontypridd scorers: Tries – Kristian Baller (2), Dafydd Lockyer (2), Lawrence Price; Conversions – Neil Burnett (3); Penalties – Neil Burnett (2).

Maesteg scorer: Penalties – Luke Richards (3). 

Bridgend 66 St Peters 3

By the Wales on Sunday

THE Rocks were rolled by a 10-try Ravens super show in this sixth round Konica Minolta Cup tie at the Brewery Field.

Any hopes St Peter's had of repeating their famous victory over Cardiff were quickly dispelled as the Ravens racked up 28 unanswered points in the opening 16 minutes with full-back Matthew Hutchings claiming a 12 minute hat-trick of tries.

Rocks' big pack were holding the Ravens in the scrums and the line-outs were evenly contested but once the ball was moved away from the breakdowns, there was only one team in it. Centre Roger Davies started the second half scoring with a try and the Ravens added another three as the Rocks tired, but the Division Three South East visitors gave their army of fans something to cheer about when outside-half Neil Parsons landed a 71st minute penalty.

The Ravens add two more tries with winger Richard Radford completing a second half hat-trick, making four in all, and centre Gareth David collected 16 points from eight successful conversions.

Roger Davies scored two altogether and the other was the only one by a forward when No 8 Andrew Williams scored from a driving maul.

Locks Tom Evans and Huw Alford stood out for the Ravens along with their entire back division.

Bridgend Ravens: Tries - R Radford (4), M Hutchings (3), R Davies (2), A Williams; Cons - G David (8).