Newport

[marshomano]

Ebbw’s team v Newport:
Dan Haymond, Will Holley, Tom Hoppe, Dom Franchi, Tobey Fricker; Callum Hall, Dai Jones; Joel Harries, Rhys Francis, Rob Sevenoaks; Kristian Parker, Rhys Clarke: Cameron Regan, Ronny Kynes (capt), Jon Davies.
Subs: Joe Franchi, Ross Jones, Josh James, Lance Randall, Owen Jones, Carl Lewis, Lewis Dennet, Srdan Majkic

There’ll be post match live entertainment
starting at 5.00pm featuring local vocal artiste from Tredegar, Katie Dear, who
has appeared in the club before and is returning by popular request!

[Fosco]

Better performance in many ways - boys showed some real guts to come back at the end.

Still plagued by a slow start and a lack of composure both in attack and defence. Some of our passing in midfield, especially when their defence is up is reckless, to say the least.

We seem to have to work really hard for our tries - yet tries against us look relatively soft in comparison (if the opposition can keep the ball in hand for a few phases we end up looking very stretched, very quickly).

Lots of promising signs though, and I'm not joining the doomsayers yet: I enjoyed today's game despite the fact that we threw the game away (to N*****t of all teams) and I do appreciate the clear shift towards adding a bit of pace and width to our game (give it a few phases of "up the jumper" first though boys).

Good luck against Cardiff - gutted I won't be there (dressing up as Batgirl and going to Comic Con instead).

[DHR]

What was that?

[robert rees]

Leaving things too late.

We are defending far too tight and allowing teams like ponty and Newport to easily go around us. Set pieces looked decent today despite the constant poor scrummaging by Lavender.

Thought we looked decent in attack, Callum Hall looked better after Dai went off, Toby looks bloody strong and makes yards after contact every time. Talk on the bank was he may go to centre once Ellis Wyn Benham comes into the side.

Dan Haymond had a funny game, awful in defence, but scored some nice team tries.

We kicked less today which was also nice.

We were unlucky in the 2nd half with poor officiating from the 3 on field officials.

[Eye Jay]

It was good to see such a spirited fightback in the 2nd half...

...but where was the fire and enthusiasm beforehand? It's Ebbw v Newport we're talking about, and there wasn't so much as a scuffle until about 65 mins?
20 years ago, all 30 of them were fighting

The replacements made a big impact, and injected some energy into the display. Why Cameron doesn't start is beyond me.

I'm sorry to say it, but there's a lack of leadership on the field and a lack of cohesion behind the scrum, especially in defence. Also, we cannot select centre three quarters who are unable to tackle their opposite number head on, man on man.

Finally, we were all frustrated with the penalty count against us, but for whatever reason they were given, let's not shout out rubbish when the opposition 10 is taking his kick. Call me old fashioned, but there's a way to play and watch rugby. No need for that 'Millennium Stadium' nonsense.

[viewfromthestand]

Cammie was not well early morning yesterday. Hence his move from starting line up to the bench.it s early days in this new era . We are building . We are trying a new style of play. We are blooding new players. The break through will happen. I was as disappointed as any other supporter that we lost yesterday. I take hope from the fact we fought back hard!!. We could of won. I thought Jason Bessant had a very poor game with the whistle. Which ultimately cost us the game. We give far too many penalties away. On a plus we have re signed Josh Jacas. Which will add another dimension. We need an experienced outside half/ inside centre to galvanise our back line. Keep the positives coming and the wins will follow

[chris]

Good to see us giving it a go in the second-half, but in reality we left ourselves too much to do.

Barring a bit of brilliance from Toby Fricker, we wouldn't even have been in with a shout. Whilst the penalty at the end (and many other decisions throughout the afternoon) appeared baffling, in reality anything other than a Newport victory would have been daylight robbery - as we were second best for large parts of the game.

I have to say that some of our defensive work yesterday was also a major concern, with two of the Newport tries looking like uncontested training exercises.

So, in summary, enjoyed the fighting spirit at the end - and the bit of magic from Toby Fricker - but overall we were poor.

I sincerely hope that i'm wrong, but i'm fearing that we could be on the end of a cricket score at Cardiff next weekend, as they are in excellent form.

[abergavenny plodder]

Gutting to lose in such a fashion right at the death but in all reality Newport deserved to win. Some tackling practice required by the backs as we looked very fragile when Newport ran the ball at us and one of their tries was sublime. Showed real character to fight back like we did. The pack did well enough and Joel Harris again showed up well especially at scrum time with Sevenoaks. My first look at Fricker and pleased with what I saw, he looks a real capture so some positives, but some real worries as well especially with our back play and fragility in defence. Can,t make Cardiff and we have a difficult run of games coming up, but sure we,ll give it our best and maybe upset one or two. C,mon Ebbw !

[Malpas69]

Can't really argue with any of the above... our defence was poor (and that is being kind), no cutting edge behind (we cannot rely solely on Toby Fricker to get us over the advantage line) and we cannot keep giving sides 20 odd point starts. That said, we have to give credit for the fight back, but in all honesty, N*****t were by far and a way the better side and should have really scored another try (which would have put them out of sight) when Toby Fricker juggled the ball close to the line, but we managed to get away with it.

I am not going to go on about the referee, but leading by a point and with our defensive line all in position and 'numbered up', why oh why did we continually try and prevent release of the ball at the rucks - we were guilty of diving over, or coming in from the side or handling the ball - we made it easy for the referee to penalise us (and he did). We should have just let them have the ball and trusted our defence (who, as I said were all lined up). Where was the leadership (in fact, who was Captain after Ronnie went off)? There was no need to keep trying to contest the ruck, especially given the state of the match and particularly in our own 22 underneath the posts, we should have just let them have the ball and just made sure that we did not miss any tackles, especially as N*****t knew that a penalty would win the game for them.

[JohnCoffey]

Well at least there appears to be a fair level of consistency on here & I also agree with much of what has already been posted.
It was a better performance in many ways, - endeavour certainly when our backs were against the wall, we had the better scrum but the Newport lineout was excellent & we missed a few including the first two.
Their lines of running behind were much more direct than ours & they looked more threatening with ball in hand - we seem to be predictable moving the ball out wide with such deep passes that we are easily picked off.
Their first 2 tries really came from no threat, they just engaged our centres & then moved it to the left where our defence was woeful on both occasions. We kicked the ball away & after one phase they went down the blind side & we didn’t make one tackle.
They did nothing for their 2nd try except move the ball wide – & it was the 3rd time they opened us up down our right flank by doing nothing.
Just ran straight through our midfield for the 3rd try & I’m not sure what they did except just run straight – actually from bad ball. Their 4th try was from a lineout & opened up our right flank again without really doing anything clever
Fricker is a real find and created a bit of panic in the Newport defence for Haymond’s first try. Their defence was all over the shop for our 2nd try & Haymand just walked thro the Newport defence.
Then Fricker was outstanding in the lead up to Haymand’s 3rd. It has been mentioned elsewhere about bringing him into the centre & that would be a real waste of his talents. We have to create opportunities for him to use his strength & pace not put him in the traffic.
It did look as if we earned our tries & then just gave them theirs.
So we may not be far away but as has been said elsewhere we lack leadership behind & that has been evident in all 4 games. If we are going to stick with the youngsters they need a voice of experience in their ears to support them.

[david brown]

Just to emphasize the lack of leadership.Why after scoring with minutes to go ,upon collecting the kick off did we kick the ball back to NEWPORT ? We just needed to stick the ball up the jumper and pick and drive.If they are unable to get the ball even with that referee ,they are not going to score Do we have a defence coach ? As stated above they scored their tries with ease.We have lost our last three games to average sides by conceeding tries which should have been prevented.Fully accept we will get better ,but unless we sort our defence out we will continue to struggle big time.

[JohnCoffey]

I thought exactly the same.
Whether or not we deserved to win, we could have if we just closed the game out.
There was no-one taking control.
Leadership, game management, whatever you want to call it, or rather the lack of it, is the common theme.
Thoughts of Jon Davies missed touch kick against England in the final seconds spring to mind !
We will get better - the trouble is, so will everyone else !

[Phillip Grey]

The endeavor was better, especially in the final third of the game but the fact still remains that we are a very weak side.

Defensively soft, and an attack that lacks.....well it lacks any sort of attack.

I agree that Fricker is one acception to that and is a really promising acquisition.
Hope to see more of that young player.

It does worry me though that despite more positives Saturday, losing is becoming a habit and the more we lose the more the confidence and self belief is going to get battered.

Have to be honest (and it pains me to admit), but I'm dreading Cardiff on Saturday. They are a form team at the moment with confidence high, so fearing a very one sided game unless miracles can be worked in training this week.

Agree with on field leadership as well, but won't comment as previously aired my views on that on a previous thread.

Really hope we can all eat our words Saturday evening, and are able to toast a victory.

[david brown]

ON THE NEWPORT WEBSITE THEY HAVE A BRIEF VIDEO OF SATURDAYS GAME.PUTS ALL OUR COMMENTS INTO A VERY COLD PERSPECTIVE .MAKES ONE REALLY EMBARRASSED WATCHING IT.