This week the Cavs were at home to Pontefract and were keen to build on their strong performance last time out against Doncaster Phoenix. The Cavs didn’t start the game particularly well and Ponte took the lead with a penalty after a couple of minutes. 0-3

In the changing rooms before a game you always talk about getting the ref on your side. Frankie clearly wasn’t listening as he managed to kick the re-start straight into the back of the ref’s head, knocking him over in the process! Fortunately, the ref saw the funny side.

The re-start was taken again and Frankie kicked the ball deep into the Ponte half and that’s pretty much where Morley stayed for the remainder of the half. The scrums were even and both sides were winning their own line out ball but it was the Cavs big ball carriers. Scouse, Matt, Ben Hall and Harry Ward who were making the difference.

Morley, were on top but couldn’t score any points. A penalty was missed and then Mickey Ryan made a great break but, with the try line begging, a poor final pass saw the move come to nothing. However, Morley’s dominance of territory and possession were eventually rewarded. A penalty for a high tackle (one of many) gave Morley a line out on the 5M line. Morley put up 2 pods, 1 at the front and 1 at the back. The ball went to the back; Matt caught the ball and whilst in the air passed the ball to scrum half Adam Summers who was able to dart in between the 2 pods and score. Frankie converted 7-3.

Soon after, it was nearly rinse and repeat but this time Ponte just managed to haul Adam down a metre short of the line. Morley were enjoying a period of sustained pressure deep in the Ponte half, they were held up over the line once and a Ponte defender just managed to ground a kick through when it looked like Morley would score. However, all this desperate defence has a tendency to tire defenders and it wasn’t long before Harry Ward spotted that they’d not marked the back of the ruck and strolled through for an easy score. Frankie converted 14-3.

Morley thought they’d scored again when Matt and Adam exchanged a neat series of passes up the touch line that resulted in Matt strolling in to score. Unfortunately, the ref (who was excellent) ruled that one of the passes was a millimetre forward and brought the ball back for a penalty to Morley. Morley continued to dominate and the backs were becoming more and more involved. Unfortunately, they got a little too excited with all the ball they were receiving and their composure went out of the window as the bombed a string of opportunities.

Following a great break from Dan on the wing, the ball was sent wide to the opposite touchline only for the final pass to be thrown straight into touch when Mickey would have had a stroll in. Frankie was then guilty of wasting both a 4 on 3 and then a 3 on 2 overlap when each time he elected to miss out the centres and pass straight to the winger, allowing the covering defence to get across on both occasions. If we’d just gone through the hands then the game would have been out of sight before half time.

Morley did have the final say of the half when Harry intelligently positioned himself between 2 defenders and slightly wider of the ruck than usual. You don’t stop Harry in space from a metre out. Conversion missed, 19-3 at half time. Several times this season the Cavs have been poor in the third quarter so the half time chat was all about keeping the momentum going but just showing a bit more patience and composure.

The Cavs started the 2nd half in the same fashion as the first by dominating both territory and possession but were still trying to score a phase or 2 too early when a little bit more patience was required. After 5 minutes, a good run from Captain Ian Webber created a ruck on the Ponte try line and Ben Hall was able to dive over to score and secure the 4 try bonus point. Conversion missed 24-3.

Morley scored a length of the field effort straight from the deep kick off. Kieran Holliday’s strong carry sucked the Ponte forwards in so the ball went wide. Ian Webber rounded his opposite centre and released his centre partner, James Surtees, right on the Morley 22 line.
Now James usually resides in the back row, but needs must and he’s played the last few games in the centres (and acquitted himself well). However, being a back rower, he doesn’t have express pace so the best part of 80m looked an unlikely ask, especially with the full back still to beat. However, James was not to be deterred. He pinned his ears back before fooling the fullback with some sort of strange in and out manoeuvre and just about managed to outpace the covering defence to score the try of the day. Frankie converted, 31-3.

Soon after, Scouse (Jack Lewtas) was unlucky not to score a fine individual try as he broke through the Ponte defence on half way with a strong carry, chipped over the fullback and looked to be winning the race for the touchdown only for the ball to take a wicked bounce away from him just as he was about to ground it. From the ensuing drop out, Morley were penalised for holding on and a good kick allowed Ponte to have a period of sustained pressure deep in the Morley half. From a 5m line out they looked sure to score but a fantastic defensive effort from scrum half Adam Summers allowed him to get his body between the ball and the ground and Ponte were held up.

Ponte continued to apply pressure and only a great one on one tackle out wide from the evergreen Bren Higgins saved another certain try for Ponte. Morley were keeping Ponte out but were incurring a lot of penalties in doing so. From one of these penalties Ponte missed the kick to the corner. Mickey ran a great return to take the ball up to the Morley 22 and a couple of big carries by Matt and Kieran created the space for Frankie to kick a 50/22 and finally relieve 10 minutes of Ponte pressure.

From the subsequent line out, Scouse made a great break in midfield to get us close to the line and then simple hands through the backs allowed Ian Webber to score out wide. Conversion missed 36-3.

Having successfully negotiated our third quarter Achilles Heel, I was hopefully of finally seeing a full 80 minute performance from the Cavs. Alas, no!

Whilst there was still plenty of effort physically it was clear that Morley had switched off mentally as our penalty count went through the roof and daft errors crept in. The young Ponte 10 was a very good player with an excellent boot on him. Every time we conceded a penalty he put the ball in the corner and with the Ponte pack being quite a bit bigger than us then the inevitable happened and Ponte scored twice in quick succession to make the score 36-17.

Having been so dominant for so long the lads were given the hard word and the target for the last 5 minutes was to prevent Ponte from scoring again. However, after conceding a succession of penalties on the last play, Ponte did eventually crash over to make the final score 36-24. This was probably an accurate reward for the effort Pontefract put in but wasn’t a fair reflection of the almost complete dominance of possession and territory that Morley had enjoyed for over an hour.

The Cavs did play well but if they are to continue their improvement then they need to show far more composure in attack. This game should have been over before half time. They also need to recognise the periods of the game when their opponents are on top and revert to kicking the ball downfield to relieve pressure. In fairness, during the last quarter we did this twice but on one occasion Frankie stepped a yard over the 22 line and on the other Tyler stood there like a plant pot making no effort to retreat so on both occasions Ponte ended up with the ball back on our 22.

Nevertheless it was a very good performance for 60 minutes. Man of the Match went to Scouse for a string of very strong carries, Ponte just couldn’t stop him.
DOD should have either been Frankie for taking the ref out at the restart (and blowing two overlaps) or Tyler, who spent the entire game biting at every little Ponte wind up - much to Ponte’s delight!

However, for some reason, Captain Ian Webber decided to give DOD to himself (again). Apparently it was for the young Ponte 10 making him look like a fool at some point (a harsher critic may say that it’s not too hard to do that, but I will show restraint). Either Ian is far too self-obsessed or he really is just after the free pint!

UTC!

Dave Gilman

Note that the Cavaliers are at home again this Saturday when Keighley 2s are the visitors. Kick off is likely to be 2.00 pm