Caerphilly v Narberth

Pre-season friendly played home at Virginia Park on Saturday 17th August 2002

Caerphilly's class outsmart visiting Otters

A confident Caerphilly gave last years Division 2 champions, Narberth, a drubbing to remember, much to the delight of new head coach, Mark Ring and forwards coach, Paul Yardley. The Castletown men produced some excellent rugby with Andrew Williams at Number 8 scoring a brace of tries and superb goal kicking from the boot of outside-half, Luke Richards. Caerphilly wasted no time from the Narberth kick-off putting together a 20 metre drive and a kick ahead by Luke Richards with the Otters knocking-on.

A solid Caerphilly scrum drove forward with Andrew Williams grounding his first try of the day with a Richards conversion. A second try quickly followed for the Cheesemen when a fine pick up by second row, Mark Workman and was taken on by flanker, Gareth Jones and winger, Geraint Lewis.

The ball was worked back inside for Tongan hooker, Feao Vunipola to drive under the posts. Richards converting. Fellow Tongan International, Taunaholo Taufahema, put in a blistering sprint from the half-way line to score. The Tongan powerhouse, in his second season at Caerphilly, will surely prove a big problem for any Caerphilly opposition in the forthcoming season.

 

Both teams shared the possession, and a long passage of play resulted around the centre of the Virginia Park pitch. An intercepted pass by Caerphilly's Andrew Williams in mid-field gave him his second try of the day.

When everyone thought the Division 1 Otters were out of their depth against a Premier Division side, they put together some well worked and promising moves but for some crunching tackles by the Caerphilly centres.

The Narberth persistence paid off when their tap penalty was taken 30 metres from the Caerphilly line and second row, Jason Jennings ran through to score and was duly converted. Caerphilly had the last word before the interval, with the diminutive fly-half, Luke Richards side-stepping his way through the Narberth defence, to score in the corner.

Half-time score - Caerphilly 33 - 7 Narberth. The second half followed much the same pattern as the first with Caerphilly dominating much of the game.

Both teams made wholesale changes through the break. with Caerphilly trying out some of their many summer signings. Phil Wheeler, a back row recruit from Cardiff, scored from the restart. After some excellent passages of play, Wheeler was to bag his second try, and was converted by Fionn McCloughlin.

Caerphilly increased their lead with a try by centre, Jarrod Murphy after some quality passing and handling by the home side. A long spell of fine open play by both teams was interrupted only by handling errors by Caerphilly and Narberth, expected during this pre-season friendly.

The Castletown defence had to be at its best with some spirited Narberth attacking play. Eventually, the Otters pressure was too great, and a try came for scrum-half, Chris McDonald and conversion.

Caerphilly lock, Neil Watkins grabbed a try in the remaining minutes of the game to give Caerphilly a 41 point victory. An excellent game of open play rugby played by both teams.

This will give Caerphilly plenty to build on before their next friendly against Plymouth on the 24th August at Virginia Park (kick-off 2.30pm). For Caerphilly, the real business starts on August 31st against Neath at the Gnoll. For further information and up to date details log-on to the Caerphilly RFC website.

Match report by Phil Whitfield, digital photography by Mark Tamplin