Whilst I had been away getting some winter sun, Pontypool had gone down to two quite damaging defeats.
The first was a heavy home defeat by Bargoed the runaway league leaders that
underlined the gap between the two sides. The second was an unexpected away
defeat to bottom of the league Llanharan. Added to this there was the recent resignation
of Pontypool director of rugby Alun Carter. It
was going to be interesting to see how the team reacted in their home again
against now bottom of the league Tondu
Well for most of the first half Pontypool
were pretty awful. They seemed to lack confidence and the cohesion that was
there in the excellent home win against RGC 1404 seemed to have completely
disappeared. The tactical kicking and
handling were inconsistent and they struggled to put any meaningful attacks
together. There were just two flashes of inspiration that led to two
unconverted tries for Norton and Thorley. Both tries admirably demonstrated
that if Pooler could get the ball out wide they were more than capable of
shaking off their lethargy.
Tondu for their part were full of honest endeavour but
lacked the cutting edge that would convert their clear dominance of possession
and territory into tries. They went close on a number of occasions and two
penalty goals were scant reward for the work that they put in. The score of 10-6
at half time was not really a true reflection of what had transpired. Overall
it was low quality stuff and we hoped that the home coaching staff would be as
busy as the moles that had been having a field day around the pitch.
The second half had to be better and it was. It turned into
a try fest as Pontypool finally found their
rhythm and managed to get their potent three-quarters moving. As Tondu wilted,
Pooler seemed to get stronger and more confident and the game became completely
one-sided. The home side really turned on the style and ran in six tries from
Gullis (2), Laing (2), Norton and Thorley. Four of the tries were converted by
Gullis which left the final score at 48-6. The Pooler side were brimming with
confidence at the end in total contrast to their demeanour in the first half.
Hopefully the strong second half performance will have
exorcised the demons from the two defeats and Pontypool
can now move on. They will certainly need to be on their mettle at Narberth
next week as they can expect a much sterner test.
The build up to the Six Nations has started with the squads
being announced. No real surprises for Wales
and most of us could probably pick the starting line up for the England game
now. The omission of Adam Jones and James Hook surely marks the end of two
international careers and I salute their contribution to the Welsh cause. You
can’t help feeling we could have got more out of Hook if had been given more
opportunities in the latter part of his career.
I did see a small amount of European rugby and was impressed
with Racing Metro who dominated at the much vaunted Northampton . The form of the three Welshmen
Roberts, Charteris and Phillips looked good and George North scored a try and made
one really strong run for the Saints which all bodes well for Wales .
I also caught a bit of the Edinburgh game and started to wonder about
the impact of the size of the in-goal area on the game. In some of the grounds
it looks barely five yards long and in others like Murrayfield it is a vast
expanse. It surely must make a significant difference both in attack and
defence - for example an outside half kicking for touch from a defensive five
metre scrum or the attacking side trying to chase a kick ahead. Maybe it should
be standardised. I won’t lose any sleep over it though.
Anyway let’s hope the Pooler will be seeing plenty of
Narberth’s in-goal area next week.
