The first XV travelled to Fishguard for our opening match in league 5 west with five of the team that started last week’s warm up match against Old Illtydians and three of the replacements unavailable for a variety of reasons. The team which took the field at Fishguard contained five players from last season’s youth team making their league debut in Matt Crimp, Jon Harper, KYLE PERKINS, Jordan St. John and Alex Withers. Three more of that youth side, James and Tom Edmunds and Dan Stephens who had appeared in the league last year also played. This is a tribute to the efforts of that team’s coaches over the years, leading to this influx of young talent into the senior ranks.

In steady rain and gusting wind, which continued throughout the match, we started strongly and exerted pressure on the home line for the first ten minutes including a series of impressive scrummages on the five metre line and it took a penalty after fifteen minutes to give Fishguard their first foothold in our half. The first score came with a penalty for our hosts after twenty five minutes and this was followed by a try ten minutes later for an 8 – 0 lead that flattered the home team. As the half went into injury time, the home scrum half received a yellow card, but apart from a wide shot at goal from a 30 metre penalty, we did not have anything to show for this period as the injury time extended the first half to forty nine minutes.

At half time, Lee Howells replaced Stephen Morgan in our front row. Five minutes after the restart, Fishguard extended their lead to 15 - 0 with a converted penalty try following a once reset scrum five wide on the right. We continued to have a fair share of the match including two scrummages against the head and as the home team became frustrated at their inability to repeat the heavy defeats they had inflicted on us in previous visits, a late tackle in midfield with fifteen minutes left led to a flare up which resulted in them losing both the centre involved and their captain to red cards. Unfortunately, whilst we were unable to capitalise on this numerical advantage, it seemed to stir the home team into greater efforts and pressure which led to us conceding an easy 22 metre penalty with five minutes left. This was followed three minutes later by a yellow card against James Edmunds in a similar position, but the kick at goal was turned down and in injury time, with the last action of the match, we conceded a third try which left us with a 23 – 0 defeat and only pride in our performance to show for our efforts against a team who had finished the last two seasons in third and fourth place in the league.

Team:
15 Ollie Griffiths 14 Martin Reeve, 13 PAUL BECK, 12 Sion Edmunds, 11 Alex Withers, 10 Tom Edmunds, 9 James Edmunds, 1 KYLE PERKINS, 2 Dan Stephens, 3 Steve Morgan, 4 Jonathan Harper, 5 Matthew Crimp, 6 James Brannigan, 7 ian lewis (captain), 8 Jordan St. John
Replacement: Lee Howells.