Fixture

In seasons gone by when someone would have told you in the club before the game that we could have nine players missing, your heart wouldn’t sink but you knew that it would be hard to get a performance let alone a win. Going up to New Tredegar on Saturday with the same scenario didn’t bother us one bit, in fact confidence was high what with us being unbeaten so far this season.

Our opponents though hadn’t had a great start to the season, they have won but hadn’t set the division alight. Our record up there had been good in recent years (apart from the 13-13 draw last year) and we all rocked up expecting another ‘W’.

Things started of quite well for us considering we scored our first try of the day within 90 seconds. Oakdale started the match and when New Tredegar gathered they tried to clear their lines but the ball only found line hugger Dai Fortune. He ran it back at pace and when tackled he recycled the ball quickly. Matthew ‘Trevor’ Davis fed Simon Veall who threw a long pass out to Luke Yates. Seeing a gap in the thin line of defence he fed Chris ‘Cripper’ Davies coming on a nice angle and he glided through that gap. With one man in his way of the line he didn’t try to steal the limelight and instead fed ‘try machine’ Brett Turner who went over in the corner for the first score of the match. Veall stroked over a great conversion from wide out to add the two points and the Dale went into an early 7-0 lead.

Straight from the restart Oakdale attacked with great intent and it wasn’t long before they were knocking on the points door once again. If it wasn’t for Cripper dropping the ball another try would have been notched up but when he knocked on the Referee call play back for an indiscretion by New Tredegar and awarded the Dale a penalty. Captain Sensible, Scott Evans chose to build the score rather than go for the try and called Veall up to take the penalty attempt. Veall’s penalty nearly smashed the upright in two when it crashed against the post but the ball fell the right side pf the try line and extended Oakdale’s lead to 10-0.

Straight from the kick off Greg Hipkiss gathered and went charging forward looking for someone to smash. Instead he fed Veall who fed Cripper who put Josh Thomas into space. With only one defender between him and points some people would have expected him to go for the line such is his youthful exuberance. Instead he drew the man and threw a perfectly timed pass to Luke Lovell who sprinted away to score Oakdale second try on 10 minutes. Many would have expected Josh to stick two fingers up to a certain someone running back to his own half but he is bigger than that and preferred to let his skills and teamwork do the talking. (Can we call it ‘closed’ now?). Veall had his conversion boots on and struck another successful attempt to take Oakdale into a 17-0 lead on 7 minutes.

Three minutes later it was try time again when New Tredegar cleared their lines and Josh ran it back at the home side with some vigour. When he was tackled New Tredegar were penalised at the breakdown. This time Roly decided to let Veall kick to the corner and Oakdale called a five man lineout. Greg gathered well and Trevor flung the ball out to Veall who sent one of those howitzers out to Cripper. With a deft turn of hands he put Super Gavin Hipkiss into a large gap and he bumped one man off and took another three with him over the line to score his first of the season. Veall missed the conversion but Oakdale went into a 22-0 lead after only eleven minutes.

It felt that this was now going to be a landslide such was the effectiveness of our play and such was the quality of the home side’s defence. But like a schoolboy on top of his favourite teacher we conspired to shoot our bolt too early and let New Tredegar easily back into the game.  In fact for the next 22 minutes New Tredegar enjoyed the majority of play and territory, although without scoring any points until the 33^rd minute when they touched down wide out in the corner for an unconverted try to bring them into the game at 22-05.

Try as we may we just couldn’t score any more points in the half and play petered out until the Referee’s whistle sounded.

HALF TIME – NEW TREDEGAR RFC 05 V 22 OAKDALE RFC

The second half started well for Oakdale with a mazy run and a couple of boshes from full back Luke Yates. When he was brought down the Dale recycled well and the ball found Veall who tried one of those fancy high kicks to the corner. The kick was good but as much as Brett pumped those little legs of his he couldn’t get to the ball in time before it went over the dead ball line. New Tredegar restarted with a 22 drop out and the ball found Greg Hipkiss. He did some boshing of his own and then sent a lovely pass out of the back of his hand to his supporting twin brother Gav. Unfortunately for Mr Jazz hands it was more like Mr Jizz Hands as he couldn’t keep hold of the ball much to the delight of supporters and players alike. That was one for Greg to put in his locker.

New Tredegar were awarded a free kick on 47 minutes when Oakdale were guilty of dicking around at the scrum. New Tredegar took a quick one but they couldn’t hold possession and knocked on. Oakdale gathered and with a broken line of defence could have scored without too much trouble but a couple of passes along the floor made things slightly more difficult for them. When the ball found Jordan Wall he fed Lee Matthews. Matthews showing back row colleague Dai Fortune how to kick a ball put a delightful grubber kick through the defensive line for Brett Turner to run onto. The ball bounced perfectly into Turner’s hands for him to do his best Chris Ashton impression and  he swallow dived over the line. Veall struck another impressive conversion from the touchline and Oakdale extended their lead to 29-5.

Eleven minutes later with Oakdale completely dominant in the scrum they were awarded a penalty when one of the opposition back rowers was yellow carded for coming into an offside position and kicking the ball out of Fortune’s feet. Captain Sensible opted for the points and called Veall up. His penalty attempt sailed directly over the top of the upright but neither of the linesmen were convinced and the score stayed the same.

On 62 minutes with New Tredegar in possession, junior school goal hanger Dai Fortune was in the right position to intercept a loose pass and he had a clear sight of the line. Now Dai is normally one of the quickest players on the field and a try should have been a formality but when the opposition have a former international centre back in their side not many people would have betted on Fortune. As Dai got closer to the line so that man Blake was getting ever closer to him and if he can stop Wayne Rooney from scoring at Wembley then he certainly was going to catch Dai and he did with two metres to go.

Supporting players were there in good numbers to retain possession and Trevor flung the ball out to Veall who thought it was time to get out his skills and threw one hell of a long pass out of the back of his hand. Somehow the ball found Jordan Wall who had the relatively easy task of running over the whitewash for Oakdale’s bonus point try. Veall missed the conversion but Oakdale surged further ahead at 34-5.

With 69 minutes on the clock and with Oakdale deep in the New Tredegar 22 both sides seemed not to want the ball and possession changed hands a number of times. When the home side managed to compose themselves the ball was sent to one of their centres who struck a big punt out of his hands to send the ball back into the Oakdale half. Luke Lovell gathered and he ran straight back at the Newts and drew his defender to feed Luke Yates. He cut back inside and found the only two defenders to navigate were front rowers. Yates had the speed to run around them and went over for the Dale’s fifth try of the day. Veall converted and increased the away side’s lead to 41-5.

The last ten minutes were played out in a fairly leisurely style but it didn’t matter as the Dale maintained their 100% start to the season and recorded their fifth league win out of five.

FULL TIME – NEW TREDEGAR RFC 05 V 41 OAKDALE RFC

What a start! It seemed that we were in for a 100 pointer after the first ten minutes but that period in the middle of the first half put paid to that. It didn’t matter though as everyone played well with a few players missing and everyone got some game time. You can see we are enjoying our rugby at the moment, everyone is happy and the big red and white machine keeps rolling along nicely. Back to the cup next week and a nice trip down to Newport. #upthadale

COST OF ENTRY TO THE GAME - £2.00. We expected three as they have asked for that in past seasons but someone must have got in their ear about how much we resent paying that extra pound.

QUALITY OF MATCHDAY PROGRAMME – They have charged three pounds in the past and haven’t even provided a programme. This season though they reduced the entrance fee by a pound and provided one so good work Newts. The write up was good but the designs of the adverts needs some work. A good effort though which can only get better

QUALITY OF THEAFTERMATCH MEAL – When you go to New Tredegar you know what you are going to get and they didn’t disappoint. Sausage and chips with buttered bread it was but this season you got two sausages so a real Brucey Bonus. They are still offering that red sauce which takes the lining off your tongue and I fell for it again. Trouble was nobody could understand what I was saying until Tuesday such was the damage done to my mouth.