Fixture

Saturday March 23^rd 2019

Maesteg Quins 28 – 26 Newcastle Emlyn

WRU Championship

Three league places and six points separated bottom place Newcastle Emlyn and the Quins in ninth. Victory may have taken the Maesteg men up to fifth or send Emlyn, into their remaining fixtures against fellow relegation candidates with a greater confidence of avoiding the drop.

Even though a substantial fifteen minutes remained and the Quins have come back from bigger margins than Emlyn’s four points lead, even the most optimistic of Quins followers were hard pushed to predict a home victory. Match management seemed absent from the Quins’ vocabulary, let alone thinking at some points of the game, causing a lack of confidence among the home faithful.

Dean Ronan led out the team out to mark his 200^th appearance. Within two hundred seconds of kick-off the hosts found themselves behind. Quins allowed the ball to bounce and bobble backwards. Two players found themselves in each other’s way and the ball was knocked on.

A strong scrum put Emlyn on the front foot. Going through a few phases, Brynmor Jones found himself grounding and Daniel Davies converted.

In contrast to Emlyn’s running onto the ball at pace, at best Quins stuttered when receiving the ball or ran from standing starts. Whether this was the cause or effect of inaccurate passes or not playing together for a few weeks is unknown.

A hoisted Quins kick was knocked on and the catalyst for all things positive in Quins play Tadgh McGuckin, was just thwarted in the hack and chase race. Awarded a scrum five, it seemed the Teifi team’s dominant inaugural scrum was a flash in the pan. Quins thrust forward and Andrew Healy’s great pick-up and pace saw him over the line, to start as he played throughout – with quality. The conversion missed.

Quins dominated from this point, but their score remained stagnant. There were good carries in the face of a proud defence. McGuckin and Lee Ronan kept the visiting defence thinking.

A forty yards penalty sailed wide. Alex Griffiths made a fantastic break and continued his fine form, pinning back his ears and the visitors in their twenty-five.

Quins lost patience. Poorly chosen and timed ‘golden passes’, coupled with too many behind the gain-line transfers without solid advances crept into their game. One resulted in the Ddôl Wiber men gleefully accepting an intercept. Stef Evans ran eighty yards to score under the posts. Davies converted

Though the Quins did not play with their usual collective consistency, Emlyn did not incisively clear their lines. Visiting indiscipline gave the Quins a foothold. Alert Jakob Williams’ quickly taken ruck penalty was complimented with excellent awareness and support, allowing the Quins to execute a superb bout of ‘inside / outside’ passing which tore open Emlyn’s defence. Alex Griffiths deservedly rounded off the move with a try.

Emlyn were gift wrapped a line-out in the Quins twenty-five. Attacking the midfield, Quins ripped the ball instead of releasing the attacker. Davies converted the penalty.

Adding to his dynamic defensive display, Matthew Tidball snapped up line-out overthrows as ‘tail-end Charlie’ and made a number of strong runs.

A superbly executed thirty yards driving maul ended with Dean Ronan celebrating his double century of appearances with a touchdown. McGuckin converted to level at 17-all.

Quins had stolen three scrums, then focussed Nathan Smith commenced stealing line-out possession. From one particular steal twenty yards from the visiting line, a maul ensued. Aled Edwards joined the melee. Re-appearing from the gathering, the centre scored a bonus point try.

Bonus point tries are less valuable if they aren’t a catalyst for victory amongst equals. From the outset of the second half Quins’ were in trouble. Failure to roll away at a ruck and from half-way Davies drew Emlyn to within two points of the hosts.

Dean Ronan then celebrated his two hundredth appearance by leaving the field with a chipped leg bone.

Quins had an early opportunity to make amends. An attacking scrum inside Emlyn’s twenty-five was wasted with an early engagement. The following line-out was lost, a ruck penalty conceded and Davies ensured the lead changed hands again. Emlyn led 22-23.

Newcastle Emlyn were managing the match better. When a crabbing scrum was adjudged to have been a Quins indiscretion, Davies put five points between the teams. It looked likely the visitors would take the spoils.

This, however, is the Quins. Eventually they shook themselves out of their torpor. Getting into the right area, Emlyn were considered to have stolen unchallengeable ruck ball. McGuckin brought the Quins to within a point.

In this a cut-and-thrust contest, neither side took opportunities to emphatically take a winning hold on the game. Emlyn were missing coffin nail kicks to touch. Whereas the Quins were not playing collectively, patiently or with common sense. Outside players were ignored and moves broke down, ending opportunities to build pressure.

Time was running out for the Maesteg men. The potency and merits of simplistic direct play in this particular match was finally acknowledged. Now the result hinged on getting into the right area of the field, getting three points and seeing out time.

Four minutes remained when the opportunity came. Emlyn did not release a tackled player. McGuckin nailed the goal to give the Quins a lead for a second time.

Quins’ poor ‘end game’ play and control in the final throes gave Emlyn hope. The restart should have but wasn’t taken. Pushing the visitors back Quins gleaned a penalty. The line-out play was undynamic. Without even a whimper, possession was handed back to Emlyn in the Quins half.

Forget the number of remaining minutes, this relegation contest had come down to a ‘final phase match.’ Now it was Emlyn who had to glean a goal opportunity. Given Davies’ accuracy, conceding a penalty would be terminal for the Quins

Silent South Parade spectators stared on. Newcastle Emlyn went through phase after unchallenged phase for two minutes, heaping pressure onto the Quins by the JCB load. When a visiting carrier drove forward a little isolated, in trap-door spider fashion Jay Ronan wrapped around the carrier’s upper back. Steve Williams honed-in on the ball as did Lee Ronan. When the called maul eventually went to ground, the referee’s whistle sounded for a bonus point home win.

It would be thoroughly disrespectful to say the Quins played poorly. Newcastle Emlyn played with a dogged determination not to be in the bottom four at season’s end. It was this objective defiance the Quins couldn’t counter as their collectiveness was missing. They will have to adjust and get back to ‘team mode’, because there is plenty more where that came from in the final fixtures.

Great collective performance? No. Great individual performances on view? Yes. Great result? Certainly. At 14:29hrs if the Quins were offered a 28-26 bonus point win it would have been grabbed with both hands. It’s what happens between the first and last whistles that kills and the reason why people watch sport.