This page is part of the archive of the Caerphilly RFC club website as it stood in 2001–2002. It is kept for reference; the journal on this address is independent and not run by the club.
played at Virginia Park on Saturday 5th January 2002, European Shield
Caerphilly
may have already been eliminated from the Parker Pen European Shield but that
did not stop the Castletown men putting in a brave performance against their
French opponents, La Rochelle last week end.
Caerphilly dominated the
first half of the game with Mark Workman, Ben Watkins and Taunaholo Taufahema
all crossing for tries and 6 points coming from the boot of Luke Richards to
give the green and whites a 23 - 3 lead with only 3 minutes of normal play
remaining of the first half.
La Rochelle closed the gap in the 37th
minute with a try coming from French International, Jean-Baptiste Elissalde and
a try from Frederico Todeschini to bring the scores to 23 -13 at the interval.
Caerphilly increased their lead with an early penalty in the second
period coming from Richards but La Rochelle made a come-back with winger,
Filipo Toala scoring tries in the 60th and 65th minute and an Elissalde
conversion to bring the scores to 26 - 25.
It looked as though
Caerphilly had sealed a victory when Luke Richards slotted his 5th penalty of
the day with 1 minute of injury time played. But Scottish Referee, Mike Hall
was to make his most controversial decision of the day in the 3rd minute of
injury time.
It was alleged that former Welsh International, full-back
Justin Thomas kicked what seemed to be a perfectly weighted clearance kick from
inside his own 22m line to end the game with a Caerphilly win. To everyone's
astonishment, the officials judged the kick to have been made outside his own
22m line and a scrum to La Rochelle at the place of kick.
La Rochelle
made one last attack at the Caerphilly line and centre, Romauld Pailat
off-loaded to Nicholas Merling to score, with an Elissalde conversion to seal
the fate of the Castletown men.
Caerphilly gave a great first half performance,
pictured here camped on the La Rochelle try-line.
A reasonable lead for the Green Army at Half-time.
The weather followed the mood of Caerphilly's play in the second half, only 6 points scored.
A narrow defeat in the last few minutes,
yet again a great opportunity missed.
Match Report by Phil Whitfield, Digital Photography by John Harris & Mark Tamplin