Longlevens RFC

Our 3rd game of the season was a trip over the Severn Bridge to Port Talbot. This was the first time we have faced Port Talbot away so the boys were excited for the fresh challenge. Unfortunately the weather did not match the occasion but this didn’t stop a few of the guys going down to the beach before we started the warm up.

When the game started the weather started to hold, and in the complete opposite to the game against Derby, Longlevens started the faster team after kick off despite an error from kick off, with the kick off going straight into touch. From the following lineout, there was a knock on by Port Talbot, in which the boys capitalised on with chip through to chase but the covering defender by Port Talbot managed to gather over his own line and clear the ball to touch. From the next line out, Longlevens went through the phases and managed to get a scrum. From the resulting scrum, Scrum Half Kieren O’Loughlin, snipped through a gap between the 9 and 10 for Port Talbot which lead to great field positioning but some good defensive by Port Talbot lead to a penalty for not releasing. Longlevens won the line out after the penalty in which Kieren again snipped but from the ruck this time. After a few phases the ball was passed out to Fly Half Zack, who took the ball to the line and offloaded it to Jez Wilson to go over and score the first try of the game, conversion missed 5-0.

Following this the weather broke and the rain started hammering down. This caused the game to become a close and cagey affair due to the amount of knock on’s due to the weather. Following the try, Longlevens had to defend massively due to a mixture of knock on’s leading to scrums and some ill-discipline leading to Port Talbot kicking for the corner. Luckily Longlevens in training have been focusing on maul’s and maul defence, which showed as a few catch and drives by Port Talbot were thwarted. Longlevens could not get out of their own 22 for the next 10 minutes but some fantastic defence and well timed turnovers meant that at the end of the first quarter the score was still 5-0.

In the second quarter it started much like the end of the first, constant pressure by Port Talbot and silly penalties by Longlevens meant that Port Talbot were camped in Longlevens half. Longlevens had little ball in the 2nd quarter but when they did they looked dangerous and the more likely team to score despite having to defend for most of the game. Some ill-discipline by both sides led to the ref warning both captains that next time there will be a card shown. Despite the constant pressure, at half time the score was still 5-0 to Longlevens.

After a half time team talk by Reece, the boys were warned that any more pens then someone is going to the sin bin. The weather was even worse now so there were more knock on’s by both teams leading to multiple scrums which lead to the game being quite stop start in this quarter. Similar to the 2nd quarter, Longlevens had to defend for long stretches of time but Port Talbot could not breach the defence. After a scrum for Port Talbot on half way, they went blind and got the ball to the winger who outpaced the defence and went in to score and he also got his own conversion, score was now 7-5 to Port Talbot.

Just after kick off, Longlevens got the ball wide to Jez, who put Andy Nicholls in space who showed pace that we haven’t seen before to run in and score under the posts. Just before he scored however on the try line he tried to give the ball to Jack to go over and score, which lead to Andy having to do a dirty pint after the game. Conversion scored by Paul Thomas. Score was now 12-7 at the end of the 3rd quarter.

Into the final quarter now and both teams were evenly matched, and most of the last quarter was played between each other’s 10 metre lines. After a break by Rob Ockleton, who sent the opposition fly half flying after his tackle attempt, Longlevens looked to go wide and tried to get another try to finish the game off but due to the bad conditions the final pass was lacking and this couldn’t be executed. Just before the final whistle the Port Talbot centre made a break however a great cover tackle from Daf stopped the attack dead, unfortunately the Port Talbot player landed awkwardly and was in considerable pain. As this was the last play of the game, the ref called time. Final score to Longlevens was 12-7.

Well done to the boys for sticking to what we have been working on in training and you can see the improvements from the previous game. Thank you for Port Talbot for a great game despite the conditions and look forward to having you at Longford Lane in February.

Man of the match: Kieren O’Loughlin was voted man of the match as from the ruck he was a constant threat with his breaks through the defence but also in defence he was tackling everything that came his way, even the lads who were a lot bigger than him. Special mention also goes to Pete de Klein who’s tackling was immense, was a nuisance in the lineout, getting a couple of line out steals on our own line and leadership in the forwards which drove them forward.