Pontypridd

[jadegoodiesfridge]

Jon Davies walked past us after the game carrying kit bags back to the coach with his knee well strapped..... That's it.

[jadegoodiesfridge]

By the way ,I thought Joy Neville was bloody biased.Hey Ho !

[Topspectator]

Jacas pulled out so Jon Davies was drafted in the coaches used him wisely by putting him on with a minute to go ive no idea what the point in that was could someone enlighten me

[abergavenny plodder]

Due to work and other commitments have not managed a game since Newport (H) , and reading reports and views on here and the club homepage, I am concerned that in quite a few of the matches since, we do not even seem to be competitive. Based on my observations from the games I have seen,We do have some good young players and Joel Harris springs immediately to mind but our 2nd and back rows especially minus Ashley looks very lightweight, we struggle at the gain line and have no effective big ball carriers (perhaps Jon Davies apart and he never seems to play) to give us that go forward and make the hard yards. Makes you realise just how good and effective a player Huddy was. Worrying times indeed.

[html junkie]

Jacas pulled out so Jon Davies was drafted in the coaches used him wisely by putting him on with a minute to go ive no idea what the point in that was could someone enlighten me

You could always go along to training and ask the coaches about that one. At least then you might get a meaningful answer, unlike the idle speculation we all love and indulge in on here!

[html junkie]

Pontypridd were very good, especially in the first quarter, by the end of which they'd sewn the game up. We have some really good players, but we've not yet gelled as a team. The coaches are using this pointless season to try different combinations, see who can cut it and maybe who can't, with the aim of being a much more competitive team in the latter part of this campaign and the whole of next season. This is the right thing to do, in my very humble, ignorant and totally one-eyed opinion.

In the likes of Joel Harries, Josh James, Toby Fricker and Lewis Dennett we have the future of the Steelmen, which I think will be bright. When you add in players who are battle-hardened but still young - Rhys Clarke, the Franchis, Rhys Francis and Cameron Regan for example, and Josh Jacas and Jon Davies if they buy in and fulfil their enormous potential, you have the makings of a really good side that will be able to live with most in the division.

Disappointed? Yes I am.
Gloomy about the future? No, definitely not.

(PS If you think Bedwas and Ponty were bad, you were clearly not at Tondu, Talywain or Mountain Ash. And that's fine, because you are probably young and virile, not ancient and rapidly crumbling like me! )

[html junkie]

By the way ,I thought Joy Neville was bloody biased.Hey Ho !

She's the same every time she refs us.

[david brown]

Well here goes,i am prepared to give the coaches all the time they need.Even prepared to see us lose matches,what i cannot accept is seeing my team humiliated.I have followed my team for 70 long years and while accepting we have some very good players,unfortunately we do not have a team.A team consists of 23 players now who have qame plan and all play for each other and not run around the field like headless chickens.This may seem brutal ,but in my opinion the truth.we a,are devoid of any signs of playing together .In all honesty we would struggle in the Championship.Stood next to a chap at the BARGOED game who was down visiting his family,at the final whistle he turned to me and said ,What a waste of 12 pounds that was.it makes loyal fans feel sick inside to hear these comments ,and has to make one think just where are we going.????

[david brown]

Well here goes,i am prepared to give the coaches all the time they need.Even prepared to see us lose matches,what i cannot accept is seeing my team humiliated.I have followed my team for 70 long years and while accepting we have some very good players,unfortunately we do not have a team.A team consists of 23 players now who have qame plan and all play for each other and not run around the field like headless chickens.This may seem brutal ,but in my opinion the truth.we a,are devoid of any signs of playing together .In all honesty we would struggle in the Championship.Stood next to a chap at the BARGOED game who was down visiting his family,at the final whistle he turned to me and said ,What a waste of 12 pounds that was.it makes loyal fans feel sick inside to hear these comments ,and has to make one think just where are we going.????

[jadegoodiesfridge]

I've sobered up now and have had time to reflect on a very bad day at the office.Ponty were good .very good.Their line out was breathtakingly superb.Great back row,as if they had played together for years,and quick as lightning backs.We had no answer to it.The only weak link they had and I'm being nit picky here,was a predictable scrum half who, by rights ,we should have nailed.But we didn't
Where we go now is anyones guess.What cheeses me off though is the accusations that our players are poor.This was mentioned to me a couple of times around town last night.I don't think Clarky,Ronnie ,Cameron,Dan et al are poor players.These are decent boys that can turn matches.This season though it just hasn't happened.Someone has already mentioned the ,once again,confusing player selection.We get Dai Langdon playing probably his best game at centre one week ,and then he's missing the next. The absence of Jacas at 8 when we clearly need an 8.
I hope this is nothing more than tinkering prior to us smashing allcomers in January.But ,right now,I just can't see it.
Cross Keys at home on Friday is now a must win.As are all our remaining home fixtures. Maybe we should concentrate on making EXP a fortress again,and build from there.I'm quite confident we can beat anyone at home.
Just a final thought.Ponty are a having a field day at our expense at the moment.So here's one for them .Was that the poorest Ponty crowd you've seen in years .There was barely 500 of them there.Where have all their supporters gone ? Maybe Cardiff City's crowd has swelled somewhat.

[JohnCoffey]

We didn’t keep it under 50 points – they did ! They were 60 points better & I bet the Ponty coaches are seething with their team that they only scored 45.

So who are we going to say it’s time to “ to say adios to” after this performance ? Who is responsible for us having no pace in our game, aren’t tackling and offer nothing to the team ? Well they were sat in the back of the stand.

This club is called Ebbw Vale so how can anyone possibly be happy with that scoreline. I don’t accept that we are not in a position to compete with the “likes of Ponty, Merthyr, Bedwas and Cardiff”. We won the Premiership a couple of seasons ago – were these clubs not involved then ? Merthyr aside, none of these clubs have benefactors, all are working on tight budgets, blooding new players every season & 3 of them also had new coaching set-ups & their squads raided by Merthyr in the summer.

I do agree, & I have stated it before, that there are instances when our players as individuals look as though they can “cut the mustard in the premiership”.

How much longer can we roll out the same post match observations – shapeless, devoid of ideas, no visible plan to breakdown defences, low skill levels, poor passing accuracy, no visible structure, no game plan, can’t build phase plays, no direction, no leadership,etc. It all points to a common source, - there is clearly a major problem with our coaching, & PG is absolutely correct, if we are to salvage this season then changes have to be made in the coaching set-up. In fact - this season is probably already lost, changes have to be made to salvage next season !

Team selection seems to constantly mystify most of us most of the time and the comments made on this board are all valid – again ! We can’t all be wrong all the time.

And if we want to draw comparisons – Pontypridd are not blessed with a large playing budget, have more new faces in their squad compared to last season than we do and have a new coach. The fact is that we were totally outcoached – again !

There has been some brutal honesty on this forum and to continue in that vein, the fact of the matter is our coaches are totally out of their depth. Our backs/attack coach has never played at this level nor anywhere near it and has never coached at this level nor anywhere near it. There is a reason that we look like “the under 8 and 9s who entertain us at half time”, - check out his CV. He may well be good at his day job but it is hardly preparation to coach an adult squad at the elite level, all of whom have more experience than he does.

I’m all for bringing through young coaches and giving them opportunities but there comes a time when we have to consider if it is at the club’s expense. The Premiership, along with the Pro14, is part of the 2 tier structure of the elite game in Wales. The risk of bringing in coaches with no experience at playing or coaching at this level is proving too great a cost for the club. We need to target players who have come from a fully professional playing background who want to break into coaching and then there is an exchange of mutual benefits to both parties. They bring their recent knowledge of the modern game and coaching best practice and we give them an opportunity to develop as coaches. At the moment it is a one-way street – the club is providing the opportunity and is getting nothing in return.

We have some senior players in the squad who have been putting their bodies on the line for the club for several seasons – if we are disillusioned with the coaching then you can bet that they are as well. Maybe our senior players could actually do a better job of coaching the side ?

In fairness to Ronnie Kynes he is an out & out Ebbw Vale player, obviously cares about the club as you can see that in the passion & 100% he gives whatever is happening around him, as do many others, & he has the difficult job of taking on the captaincy made even more difficult by following Damian Hudd. If he has no belief in the coaches just how difficult has his job become ?

We are fortunate that there is no relegation this season. There are only 2 ways to attract quality players to a club in the Premiership – money or they want to work with quality coaches. We have neither. The real concern is that senior & better players become so disillusioned with a club’s coaching capability that they won’t stay next season under that coaching group & then relegation could become a real possibility. If this is true then the players will have had their concerns about the quality of coaching content since the summer - we have some very experienced players who have enjoyed success with the club & they will have quickly picked up on such concerns.

Rugby at this level is a results game & it is pointless building for next season because if the best players don’t believe in the coaches they won’t stay & a club becomes forever building for “next season” as it sinks closer and closer to being a competitive irrelevance & clubs viewing us as a gimme 5-pointer for them.

A brutal synopsis maybe but that is because like everyone on this board I care about the future of the club & its standing in the 2nd tier of Welsh rugby.

We are joint bottom, have scored less points than any other side, have the worst defence record, have the least bonus points, are the only side which has no try bonus, have the worst points difference by some margin, show no signs of improvement & I am entitled to my opinion !

[david brown]

Hear hear JOHN ,this continuous argument about the coaches tinkering with selection to find the correct format is rubbish We have had a problem at number 8 all season ,last Saturday JACAS had a fine match ,we all thought that is one problem solved but no he his dropped to the bench and our flanker who is not a proven number 8 is once again chosen .Please someone explain to me how this is a fruitful experiment.?? By simple process of elimination we are wasting the talents of REGAN one of the best blind side flankers in the league.

[chris]

We were completely blown away in that first half, and it really did look like men against boys at times... we looked so disorganised in defence, and our back play was so predictable you could read it a mile off. That first half was as embarassing as anything I have seen in recent years. I also agree that the only reason we avoided a cricket score yesterday was that Ponty had wrapped up the game within 20 mins, and so coasted for the remainder. We can't be happy with any aspect of that.

I genuinely believe that we have some good players in our squad, however selection continues to baffle me... it's all very well throwing the first half of the season away to experiment, but just like winning losing becomes a habit and we're looking fairly shambolic at the moment.

For me when you're in our current predicament and things are not going to plan, you have to start by putting your strongest side out week-in week-out to try and stabilise things. At the moment our team selection seems to come out of a hat!

I was joking with a mate of mine who supports Ponty after the game about me being pleased that we had kept it to under 50 points. A few seasons ago I was shaking his hand after we'd destroyed Ponty in the Premiership final... how times have changed!

[Malpas69]

Jacas pulled out so Jon Davies was drafted in the coaches used him wisely by putting him on with a minute to go ive no idea what the point in that was could someone enlighten me

Halfway through the second half, Cameron Regan went down with what looked like a leg injury. After receiving treatment, he/they decided that he was fit to carry on. To me, he looked like he was struggling after that. Why (at that point) did we not bring Jonathan Davies on in his place? OK, he would not have turned the game for us (that was clearly already lost), but he would have given us some "go forward" and "ball carrying" at No. 8, something that we have been lacking (in my opinion) for a few seasons now. Instead, Cammy stays on the pitch and Jonathan Davies puts his tracksuit back on. That would have been the ideal opportunity to give him a run out. A couple of barnstorming runs is just what we needed at that point instead of the usual, predictable tosh that we were witnessing. Instead of that, what do our coaches do, they bring him on with 2 minutes to go and not in place of Cammy, but they take our Captain Ronny Kynes off instead?! That was an inspired decision if ever there was one - absolutely baffling to me...

As previous, we have some good players - not once have I criticised any of the players, but something is clearly wrong - they are playing as individuals with seemingly no plan, strategy or tactics. It is clear to everyone (it seems) that we lack a ball carrier at No. 8 and Cammy is "wasted" there in my opinion.

[JohnCoffey]

All these points are absolutely valid and well made & they all point to one thing - the coaching.

They need to be replaced or at the very least bring in a DoR above them who will take responsibility for selection & directing the coaching process, leaving the coaches to deliver the detail in line with the DoR's game philosophy.

The players clearly have no say in the game plan yet they have to deliver it so it needs their buy-in. They seem in total confusion about what their roles are at any given game situation.