Cardiff Chiefs 26 – 38 Gloucester Griffins
10.11.19 At Cardiff Arms Park
On the day we remembered our fallen men and women, Gloucester travelled down the world-famous Cardiff arms park to take on our friends in blue and white, Cardiff. The conditions were dry but very cold with a good wind coming in from the river taff.
The boys were met with a typical Welsh away dressing room with all 23 players cramming in to a broom closet.
The game was started with a two-minute silence for our brave service men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice. As the game started it was clear the Cardiff outfit were not messing around today, with strong carries from the flankers, fly half and centers. They were rewarded for their early dominance with 2 try’s in the opening 15 minutes. Then the Gloucester boys woke up with Steward picking up from the base of the scrum drawing in 4 defenders and taking a cheap shot for his troubles offloaded to the fly half Fish to run around the remaining defenders and score in the corner.
From that moment Gloucester knew they could turn the tide and keep the crowd quiet. With resolute defending from the ever-present Pete and Elliot, strong rucking from the tight 5 Andy, Saul, Laurence, Jim and Paul, then strong runs from our centers and full back Darren (on for the injured Daffyd, Gary and Shane put Cardiff on the back foot and Gloucester creeping up with hard yards.
Half time Cardiff 12 – 7 Griffins
The half time chat lead by the coaches really Boyed the boys up and with the addition of some fresh faces of the bench it really showed the difference.
In the second half Gloucester really turned the screw running in 5 try’s with pick of the bunch being a 70 meter interception run from scrum half Jez. Dropping another 2 over the line the one corner seemed cursed both times the boys dropped it and both times the lads went off injured, one being extremely worse than the other leaving the field and going straight to hospital was Elliot with his chocolate knee in tow. The Longlevens lads overcome a lot of interruptions in the second half that finished with winger Kieran at 9 and no.8 Steward at 10. The bench did exactly what is said it would by adding some fresh legs and bolstered enthusiasm in defense meaning a pressured defensive kick by Cardiff was met with a fantastic run from full back beating 6 defenders to score under the posts.
Final score
Cardiff 26 – 38 Griffins
The Griffins knew they were not at their best today, but a sign of good team is one that wins when not playing well. A few bits to work on in training and the lads celebrated hard on their success in the Welsh capital.
Scorers.
Jez Wilson x 2, Gary Shaw, Zack Fisher, Shane Daley, Hayden Price (first ever try)
MoM Shane Daley
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