Match Report: Pre-season friendly Vs Carmarthen Quins.
“Considering where we were 3 weeks ago at half time in the Old Redcliffians game this group of players have made huge strides forward in a very short space of time” commented head coach Paul Matthews. “We’ll go into the Met game next week in a positive frame of mind”.
Manager Mark Gould added “Tonight only 4 players who were in the 20 to play the last game of last season were involved in this match which shows how much work has gone on so far. Great to see them knitting together and by the way how Do you work the mower?”
Captain Morgan Williams: “The boys really put in a shift tonight. This group is developing well. Also we were winning until Highgate took me off!”
A sterling effort by Mike, Patty, Murph, Gerry and Ruth over a 24-hour period managed to get the pitch into a presentable position following some major issues with the club scissors in the week and pre game worries that Gruff and Steff would get lost in the hay were prevented by the use of some stilts and long studs!
On a night that saw both sides play some exciting attacking rugby the coaches of the respective sides will have learnt a great deal about their squads before the 23-24 season kicks off next week. The game started in decent sunshine but the second half saw a few torrential downpours which brought into question the Wanderers policy under new rugby Chairman Murph of using scented candles instead of proper floodlights! This resulted in some areas of the field being in the dark. Despite that both sides continued to handle very well and the small crowd were thoroughly entertained. Not surprisingly both sides fell foul of the new tackle law and I’m sure it is equally tough for the officials who no doubt do not want to be stopping the game every time there is contact. The well contested game that saw 10 tries ended with the Quins showing their premiership status as they ran out comfortable winners but they will have known they were in a contest as the scores were level at 21-21 until the last quarter. The home side probably had the better of the early exchanges and the interplay between forwards and backs augers well for the season ahead. With the return of long term injury victims Anthony Cox and Josh “soon to be a father “ Male the Massiv will be encouraged with what they didn’t see, as they were away glamping. Murph would have joined them but he had ‘lost’ his tent at the Green Man festival the previous week. The coaches will no doubt analyse proceedings before the visit of Cardiff Met next week as we all look forward the first of the new Championship East (soon to be premiership 2 followed by Div 1 West of the Taff 3 and who knows what 6 as the WRU rename the leagues in the next 12 months) games.