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Match Report
SWP RFC v RTB Ebbw Vale
Operational commitments made a significant impact on numbers for the first pre season friendly against RTB Ebbw Vale at Waterton Cross.While the visitors could rotate an extra 13 players the Police could only manage a bench of three.
Although the Police struggled a little in the early exchanges in the scrum they more than matched the visitors in all other aspects of play. The Police appeared well organised more vocal and somewhat of a revelation at the breakdown.
All the early pressure and territory was with the home side with some excellent tactical kicking by new skipper Ryan Miles at 10. In the early exchanges Vernon Dladla acquitted himself well at the breakdown and there were some good runs by Aled Roberts, Matthew Pound and Ryan Miles.
There was a strong challenges at the line out from Gerald Hodgson and flanker Chris Price. Unfortunately Chris was injured driving for the line. This brought the return of “evergreen” Gareth Morgan in the centre with Aled Roberts switching to the back row. Almost with his first touch an excellent pass from Gareth saw Jack Evans released only for him to be brought down just short. Then after good work by the returning James Davies and Joe Maloney, Ryan hit the post with the resulting penalty.
On a retreating Police scrum there was a wild hack by RTB which was caught by Lloyd Roderick who showed good pace and then fed Matthew Pound who was over for the first try.
This made the score 5-0 at half time.
There was an early second half penalty for the Police but this went wide. Then a speculative kick by Matthew Pound was well chased down by Jack Evans. This caused alarm in a retreating RTB defence allowing Aled Roberts to gather and show good speed to go over. Ryan added the extras and it was 12-0.
The Police were still maintaining the pressure and an excellent charge down by James Davies at the back of the scrum saw the ball over the line and the ever alert Matthew Pound beat the defence for his second try. Ryan landed the conversion with the help of the post and there was a comfortable lead of 19-0.
New hooker Lee Murphy, Steve Lyons, Cory Evans, Dean Davies and subs Luke Carpenter and Callum Rogers all played their part. as the Police pushed for another score.
However in the final minutes RTB were pressing hard and at first the Police managed to hold the line thanks to a strong tackle by Adam Hale. However the line was breached to leave a final score of 19-7.