Bargoed

[viewfromthestand]

15 d haymond 14 steph thomas13 dom franchi 12 dai langdon 10 lewis dennett 9 dai jones 1 ross jones 2 rhys francis 3 rob sevenoaks 4 lance randall 5 rhys clarke 6 ronnie kynes 7 cam reagan 8 josh jacas. Subs 16 joe franchi 17 josh harris 18 j james 19 owen jones 20 carl lewis 21 dorian jones 22 will talbot davies . team looks sound on paper. Good to see josh jacas back in the frame. Big game needed from him . two game changers on the bench in Dorian and Will . hoping for a positive performance tomorrow

[viewfromthestand]

Forgot Kristian Parker at 19 .

[Topspectator]

No Jon Davies one of if not our best ball carrier who constantly gets over the gain line

[chris]

No Jon Davies one of if not our best ball carrier who constantly gets over the gain line

Just don't get it! If he's injured then fair enough, but then why name him as a travelling reserve???

[String]

We needed that win although did our best to throw it away at the end (i think most people thought it was a try initially until the forward pass was signalled). First half we didnt really do much and just gave the impression of hanging in. Improved second half with good long spells of the ball and pressure even if we still didn't look that threatening.
Scrum seemed much improved and was our best attacking weapon by a mile. The lineout was terrible though, countless losses on own throw including one that gave away the field position leading to the last bargoed attack.

Much tougher game next week but going into it after a win is a lot better than a defeat. A win is a win at this point in the season - doesn't matter how !

[jadegoodiesfridge]

Thought the line out looked good when Rhys was throwing in.To be honest I think Rhys has made the No.2 jersey his own,the boy is just a damned good player,and I will be disappointed if he doesn't start against Ponty next week.Agree with above comment,think Bargoed blew it at the end with the forward pass.but it all stemmed from that God awful throw in from Joe Franchi.Joe is frustrating as hell .Bloody brilliant in the loose,but barely gets past the 30℅ mark as far as line out is concerned.
Thought Josh Jacas looked excellent at 8 and couldn't believe he was replaced as early as he was.Again ,that swap may have cost us the game ( OK ,it didn't, but it gave me the jitters somewhat).Also thought the Bargoed pack would have given us a more torrid time .In fact our pack looked comfortable.A pleasant surprise.
Not the greatest of games ,but a welcome win nonetheless.Didn't want to face a very good Ponty away next .But that's just the way it is.as Bruce Hornsby once said.No matter ,let's get down there and annoy their supporters.See you next week.

[html junkie]

We needed that win although did our best to throw it away at the end (i think most people thought it was a try initially until the forward pass was signalled). First half we didnt really do much and just gave the impression of hanging in. Improved second half with good long spells of the ball and pressure even if we still didn't look that threatening.
Scrum seemed much improved and was our best attacking weapon by a mile. The lineout was terrible though, countless losses on own throw including one that gave away the field position leading to the last bargoed attack.

Much tougher game next week but going into it after a win is a lot better than a defeat. A win is a win at this point in the season - doesn't matter how !

Agree with most of this. The scrum was really potent and I was delighted to see the two young props Joel Harries and Josh James dominating late on, a great comeback after the penalty try conceded at Bargoed in August.
The ref got the forward pass spot in, it was hugely forward. Great move by Bargoed though to be fair.
I don't agree that the lineout was terrible. I think we won all our ball while Rhys Francis was on. Joe Franchi - who is superb around the park and in the scrums, and has improved a great deal with his throwing in - was not as accurate as Rhys yesterday. Sadly, without our usual trio of hookers, we had to make do... when oh when will our coaches learn that you have to have three hookers in the squad?

[viewfromthestand]

A positive result which was badly needed to build up our confidence. We are a young team and we are going to make mistakes. We looked very ordinary first half but managed to hold on to the Bargoed shirt tails. I think the emtire team worthy of a mention. Our 6 front rowers smashed the Bargoed front row. Oaksy was at his athletic best . His astounding pace always brings a smile to my face. Such a character. I thought Josh Jacas was prominent and gave us 110%, Rhys Clarke was incredible once again but we have come to accept that as the norm . Cam and Ronnie were at their most productive this season. Dai Jones at scrum half took too many wrong options and had it been a day where the pitch cut up and it was a forward battle Dai s your man. Carl Lewis got us going a bit quicker and we seemed to enjoy his speed of distribution. Lewis Dennett looked capable and the centres tackled and carried well. The one kick Dai Langdon put into the left corner was straight out of the book of dreams. It was a beauty. Once Toby realises that you cannot run through walls however many times you try he ll be a better player. He has boundless ability, oodles of pace and the strength of ten men. We as a team need to work him into space and the young man will be a potent attacking force. Dan Haymond is another Rhys Clarke and never gives less than 110 % a quality classy player. Steph Thomas like Toby has a huge amount of pace and we need to get him space. He ll do damage when the space shows itself. Thought Dorian looked good and hopefully we ll see more of him in the next few months. Port Talbot is very classy . All in all I was pleased with the win and without doubt we were lucky not to have conceded that late try which would have cost us the victory but we did nt and when we look at the the result it s a BIG FAT W. Jon Davies was injured in training on Tuesday hence not in the squad. When a few more come back we will be a force. As for Joe Franchi s darts the poor bloke has the yips. But we need to find a cure to his woeful throwing and if that means front ball all the time then so be it. I watched him pre game warming up with Dean throwing the ball into the third row of the stand and he did nt miss one. He s too good a player to allow his throwing to ruin the rest of his game. . We could use another player to throw in if he s lost his confidence. Joe is young and I believe he will get it right. Slept lovely after the win . Dreaming of a certain Mr Sevenoaks winning Olympic gold in the 100 meters trundle.Go Oaksy with all the pace of a hunting tortoise.

[JohnCoffey]

Well, it was a game that could clearly have gone either way but on the balance of possession & territory I think we did deserve the win.
Agree with much of what has been said about the individual player efforts, but I have always had confidence in the quality of the players in our squad – I don’t believe that is our issue. Once again we failed to build phases or have effective strike moves that get us over the gain line & I can’t see what we are trying to achieve at restarts.
The work rate of Randall & Sevenoaks at the contact area was outstanding as was Regan and Fricker’s work rate to carry and give us go forward.
Our defence in the final minutes was also outstanding & the final Bargoed pass did appear to be well forward taking the 5m line as a marker. It was also so unnecessary as they had 3 v 2 & went for the long miss pass – the malaise of Welsh rugby !
I didn’t see the necessity to take off Jacas either – especially as he had already had a rest when he was taken off to cover the set-piece during the yellow card.
There were a high number of penalties in the game & the ref seemed to be guessing most of them at the set pieces & the yellow cards for the handbags seemed to be an over reaction.

[Phillip Grey]

Wasn't there Saturday for this one, but delighted with the win.

Sounds like a close game that was on a bit of a knife edge until the final whistle.

For those that were there, did it look like progress was being made and that the break in fixtures had given us chance to sort errors out?

[Stevey]

Wasn't there Saturday for this one, but delighted with the win.

Sounds like a close game that was on a bit of a knife edge until the final whistle.

For those that were there, did it look like progress was being made and that the break in fixtures had given us chance to sort errors out?

Possibly Phil, but moreso for our injured to recover.