Newport v Caerphilly

Welsh Premiership fixture played away at Rodney Parade on Tuesday 29th October 2002
Half-time score: Caerphilly 0 - Newport 15
Attendance: 4,800
Referee: Keri Evans, Touch Judges: Hugh Lewis, Scott Flemming, John Wainwright

CAERPHILLY battled hard to defy the power of the Black and Ambers but a sense of frustration must be felt about the manner of this latest defeat. Coach Mark Ring will surely be tearing his hair out to work out why some of his more talented players are committing basic errors. Tuesday's clash at Rodney Parade summed up Caerphilly's season - a performance full of spirit and courage, blighted by errors that produce chances for the opposition and missed opportunities in attack.

An opening spell of pressure and a powerful surge forward by the Newport pack ended with flanker Jason Forster charging over the line for the first try after just four minutes. Jason Strange missed the conversion but the home fans did not have to wait long for Newport to add to their points tally, as Caerphilly conceded a penalty try. The Cheesemen were struggling to come to terms with the strength and velocity of Newport, particularly at scrums, and this contributed to the second try.

As the home side pushed Caerphilly back towards their own line, flanker Joe El-Abd dived in to prevent a pushover, leaving referee Keri Evans no option but to award a penalty try. Jason Strange converted the kick to put Newport 12 points to the good. This was in the eighteenth minute, and only two minutes later worse was to follow when Lee Manning was sin-binned for the visitors for going offside at a ruck. The rest of the half saw Caerphilly defending stoutly, camped in their own half, but Newport could only add a penalty-kick from Strange to their score before the interval.

Newport had made their superiority at line-outs and scrums tell and this was the major difference between the two teams in the first-half. After the interval a lot more rugby was played in the Newport half. Chances to reduce the deficit were lost by Caerphilly because of a mixture of poor passing and sloppy handling. They were made to pay when Shane Howarth sprinted clear to put the home side 20 points to the good. Strange added another conversion to make it 22-0 after 52 minutes.

Caerphilly responded well to this blow and put together a sustained spell of attacking pressure which brought its reward when Sam Cox raced through the Newport defence to make it 22-5. The visitors had again showed their character to come back but as so often this season all their hard work was undone when an error in a scrum meant that it was overturned. Newport No 8 Gareth Gravell took a pass from Strange and went over unopposed before Strange kicked the conversion to make it 29-5.

There was still time for Adrian Garvey to add another try for the home side after a tap penalty and the last action of the game saw Caerphilly wing Ryan Howells notch a late consolation. It had been a better second-half performance from Caerphilly and glimpses of their attacking talent offered hope for the rest of the Welsh league campaign if they can cut out mistakes in defence.

Match report by Chris Slavin (Caerphilly Campaign reporter)
Pictures by Mark Tamplin (CRFC Photographer)

* denotes full international