Llanharan

[tinker]

Well done boys on your win today. We always seem to make hard work of it even when we have a lot of possesion.
Anyway it was the right result. Hard luck to Abu I thought he deserved the try. Looking forward to next week when hopefully we can get another three points.

[String]

Very low quality match but we eventually got the win.

Llanharan more than deserved the 12-3 lead they worked up as we yet again exhibited shoddy tackling, total lack of interest and absolutely no clinical finishing ability when we had the ball in the first half.

Yet again we woke up towards the end of the match getting the tries (why do we find it impossible to play in the first half of games?). Deserved the win but scoreline was flattering.

Low quality match all round though with poor handling, options and discipline from everyone involved.

[Mykal]

Poor quality is an understatement. The first half was one of the most shapeless, shoddy, leaderless displays I've seen for a fair while. If Cleaver and Chris Thomas hadn't been making yards we'd have turned around in an even worse position.

Kris Owen is quality player, but he's no leader. Yes, he's out on the wing, but as a captain he should still be in amongst the players at any breaks in play, having little chats to the ref, organising the team. He seemed to be happy to let the team get on with it, it was only after halt-time when somebody else probably had a word, Chay and Byron, that things picked up.

[Eye Jay]

We turned it round eventually and deserved the win, although I think the scoreline flattered us - it certainly wasn't as easy as that.

In the 1st half, too many players seemed determined to crash into the first tackler they confronted and just fall to the ground for others to then do exactly the same - Dan Phillips must have done it 4 or 5 times.

On the positive the Chris Thomas was lively in the loose, Manu made an impact when he came on and Jason Williams got a real grip of the game in the second half.

Good to see clear distance between ourselves and the bottom three - 8 days ago it didn't seem so comfortable.

Let's shout for one more home win next Saturday, as it's probably our most realistic 'W' of those games left.

Despite some criticisms, well done to all the boys.

[Audi Diesel]

Second-half performance notwithstanding we were flattered by the final scoreline. Llanharan play attractive rugby, but don't have the forwards.

Nevertheless, a welcome win. Caerphilly will be much harder, but we can do it!

[Graham]

Second-half performance notwithstanding we were flattered by the final scoreline. Llanharan play attractive rugby, but don't have the forwards.

Nevertheless, a welcome win. Caerphilly will be much harder, but we can do it!

I certainly hope so AD. That would take us above Bedwas (as long as they don't win of course). If someone said we would finish in 11th place a couple of weeks ago, I'd have taken it straight away.

If we put in 80 minutes against Caerphilly (and we'll have to) we are capable of doing them.

[Dai Rob]

In the second half I think our backs showed what they were capable of given a chance.

Yes the first half was dire, but against a fierce wind my feeling was we could use the boot to good effect and play from there. 28 - 0 second half.

I hope we can get a more structured set up for next week and play 'real' wingers and put players where they play best.

Oh, one more thing, I think it's time we learnt to be a bit less nieve and play to the 'officials' lack of control / knowledge. I think Llan were much better at 'camping offside' than we were...

One more big shout from the banking for our last home game then..

"COME ON EBB"..

[String]

My only real complaint with Owens was his holding on in the tackle - he allowed at least 1-2 seconds every time before yelling release which is just enough to stop that first grab for the ball.

Most of the offside calls from the crowd were wrong and a direct result of us screwing up playing the ball from our own ruck. Scrum half with hands on and so on. Owens did OK really.

[Mykal]

I thought Nigel Owens had a pretty good game too. The higher quality of referee does show, the game has a bit more flow, the ball is in play a lot more and you don't see the player flare up's that you often get with the, ahem, 'less-experienced' officials.

For example, compare the standards set by Nigel today, the young english ref earlier in the season, name and match escapes me as opposed to the display by Phil Fear the other week.

[String]

Cant remember the english refs name. All i can remember is he was RFU and from Birmingham and did very well (possibly no home-based bias/ideas?).

We've had some decent refs but as you mentioned fear, him and others also proves we've had some awful officials.

[Graham]

I thought Nigel Owens had a pretty good game too. The higher quality of referee does show, the game has a bit more flow, the ball is in play a lot more and you don't see the player flare up's that you often get with the, ahem, 'less-experienced' officials.

For example, compare the standards set by Nigel today, the young english ref earlier in the season, name and match escapes me as opposed to the display by Phil Fear the other week.

Was that the English ref that we had against Newport?

I thought today he let quite a few "minor" knock ons (but knock ons none the less) and a lot of "not straights" go unpunished. But it did let the game flow a bit more.

I've seen worse refs but I don't like to name them. "'Evans" knows there have been worse refs and I have no "Fear" you will all know who I mean.

[Graham]

ICWales match report in HERE.