Fixture

Saturday, October, 6^th, 2018

Maesteg Quins 12 – 27 Rhydfelin

WRU Championship

Creator of the electric lightbulb - Thomas Edison, always insisted he didn’t invent the lightbulb but found 10,000 ways how not to create light from electricity. Quins would have felt the same about how to win rugby matches.

Final league standings for those clubs who don’t flash the cash in the Championship will depend on the length of winning runs clubs can create. Having won back to back matches, including a vital away victory, a home win would have been the type of mini sequences that will ensure a good league position.

It turned out to be one of those days that for no apparent reason happen. A strangely lack-lustre and sluggish Quins seemed to be playing in diving boots. Equally slow was the Quins thinking and reaction times. It was a Quins on temazepam.

It started promisingly with a series of attacking scrums that proved fruitless, despite being camped close to the Rhydfelin line for a little short of ten minutes.

When Rhydfelin had their first sniff in attack they were clinical and inventive in their execution. Faced with a flat defensive back-line, visiting out-half Rhys Perry put in a chip that stretched the Quins. The ball settled perfectly in goal on the South Parade savannah and right-wing Chris Tottle dived on the motionless oval to score.

Rhydfelin won a penalty when they were quicker to react at a ruck. A quick tap found the Quins not ten and Gavin Close kicked the goal with the hefty wind at his back.

Quins had a huge chunk of possession and territorial advantage due to their dominant scrum. Despite this they couldn’t cross the line, whether try or gain-line as a result of their reluctance to utilise direct running, multi-phase play and patience.

Possibly as a result of being readily available, there was no respect for the ball and it was cheaply lost too often, too easily. Considering the set-piece was so dominant, for the first time in a long time, base of scrum play was poor. Consequently, coupled with Rhydfelin’s defiance, three-quarter play was inhibited.

Half-time arrived and the question of whether the wind was an eight-points gust needed to be answered.

Rhydfelin showed the patience and simplicity that was lacking in their hosts play. Electing to throw long at the first line-out of the second half while throwing into the teeth of a strong gale was an error. Had it been on the other side of the pitch with the wind at the thrower’s back the option may have been a good one. Rhydfelin snatched possession and didn’t lose their composure when playing through the phases and Kevin Briggs was over.

Quins struck back. After numerous scrum penalties a penalty try got the hosts on the scoreboard.

Could the Quins grow into the game? Certainly, but they had to play with a firm direction. One thing for sure the midfield selection of moving a full-back into centre, the centre to the wing and the wing to full-back in a positional merry-go-round was, just like the 10,000 Edison made - a botched experiment.

Ruck penalties raised their ugly head again and Rhydfelin expertly and gratefully received the gifts. One such gift came when Quins gathered a harmless kick ahead and instead of using the wind to its full ground making potential, inexplicable dithering led to conceding a penalty at the breakdown for holding.

Kicking down the line, direct running preceded some exceptional interplay and all-action scrum-half Sam Studley nipped over. Close converted.

Gaining possession on half-way, Kieran Watkins kicked ahead. The foot race was an exciting one with Ryan George and Watkins haring after the ball that had come to a standstill on the five yards line. Winning the race, the visiting wing fell on the ball but he did so at pace, so after killing the ball Tottle tottered and the ball bobbled out of his grasp. Like hyenas Watkins and George scavenged the ball and the former was over to score.

The vital conversion was missed and from this point Rhydfelin took total control of affairs. It was interesting to see how well the visitors varied their play and executed an open running game plan in the right places against the hoary blast.

Getting into position, Rhydfelin were happy to make simple but effective yards with a mixture of direct running and conjurors passing. ‘Felin weren’t in a rush to score and were prepared to make the opportunity for others without too much flamboyance. Blindside Mark Jones found himself in possession and taking an angled, direct run to the line he gained the bonus score which Close converted to take any sort of plus points away from the Quins.

The defeat was not the way Josh Mines would have wanted to celebrate his fiftieth appearance.

Next week to Narberth.