Villagers march on in cup competition (From Penarth Times)

Villagers march on in cup competition

DINAS POWYS 25 PTS CARDIFF UNIV 9 PTS

THE VILLAGERS go marching into the second round of the Principality Cup with this comfortable victory in the sunshine on the Common.

But the large crowd that gathered hoping for a game marching the quality of the previous week, when the Villagers defeated Builth Wells, were to be disappointed.

The students were enthusiastic and steadfast and their full back Ricky Heyman converted two penalties within six minutes, to provide an early six point lead for the visitors.

The pattern for the game was set when, within ten minutes, the students declined to scrummage and opted for line outs following the home side not throwing in straight.

The home support was incredulous that after 20 minutes, their side had yet to score.

From a line out Stuart Pyman stole the opposition throw in and fellow lock Gareth Phillips burst through initial tackles, before feeding Elliott Smith who raced fully 30 metres to score a debut try. The conversion was kicked by Daniel Jones and the Villagers took the lead temporarily.

After Daniel Jones had his only failure with the boot all day the students kicked a penalty to lead 7-9 at half time.

The words of wisdom spoken at the interval by Jeff Pick, the club coach, had an immediate impact as the students were penalised from the restart and the Villagers were ahead by 10-9.

Half time also saw the introduction of Barry Griffiths at scrum half for his first team debut. The young player, newly arrived from Llantwit Major, was to give a pleasing performance with much promise for the future. The Villagers were now in total control of all aspects bar the scoreboard, and had to rely on another penalty from Jones to increase the lead to 13-9.

The backs were struggling to get together and even the peerless Chris O'Brien spurned a scoring chance as, in his over eagerness, he opted to cross himself rather than pass to Richard Gregory outside him.

The young centre O'Brien however, was to redeem himself as he athletically gathered a hanging kick and flicked a joyful pass to fellow centre Darren Ryan. Ryan carried the defence before him as he drove strongly to the try line, only to be brought to ground inches short of scoring.

The students dived over to prevent release of the ball and a further penalty from Jones, saw the lead expand to seven points as the Villagers led 16-9.

The referee was proving consistent in his decision making, and seemed to some to be tolerant of youthful misdemeanours as they persisted to kill all attacking options by their fringing.

The plethora of possession saw the Villagers threaten to score time after time. A stunning 50 metre break by scrum half Griffiths petered out through lack of support for the initial break. Chris Thomas the chunky number eight, crashed over from a line out, but the try was disallowed for some off the ball activity.

The denial of the try spurred Thomas into action and he drove into the visitors defence, which saw the award of a further penalty for infringing at the tackle area. The immaculate Jones converted again and the score moved to 19-9.

The students now realised that they would have to attempt more than denial to achieve victory and started to run around frantically.

The Villagers tried to match this tempo and a period of frantic play resulted in a comedy of errors. This section of the game finally resulted in Daniel Jones charging down a desperate clearance kick before gathering and scampering over for the try which he converted, to move the score to 26-9.

This was the final score of the game, and although the sun shone, there were few rays of hope on the pitch.

SECONDS DRAW

The Seconds drew 20-20 with Rhiwbina on a day when the Squirrels had no first team fixture. The skipper, "Ninja" Parsons was full of praise for his charges and especially pleased with the performance of evergreen Phil Young.

The performances on the field were put in perspective by the news that club stalwart Matthew Hadley had undergone a successful operation to renovate the compression fracture of the neck the he suffered last week.

The thoughts and prayers of all associated with this popular player were rewarded with the news that he was up on his feet walking around, making tea for other patients on the trauma ward. The man is a local hero and his return home only four days after his operation is incredible and this man whom many believed to have been hewed from Sherwood Oak, has now been reinforced by titanium.