| Ebbw Vale 31- Caerphilly 14 |
 Konica
Minolta Welsh Cup 4th Round |
| Half-time score: Ebbw Vale 17 Caerphilly 0 |
| Date: Saturday 26th January 2008 |
| Kick-off time: 2:30pm |
| Referee: Matthew Aplin (WRU) |
| Attendance: 500 |
| Ebbw Vale Website: - http://www.ebbwvalerfc.co.uk/ |
| Weather: Overcast |
| Match Report by Mark Tamplin |
| Caerphilly exited the 4th round of the Konica Minolta Welsh Cup at
Eugene Cross Park last weekend with pride. Taking on the Principality
Premiership’s 2nd place team, a cold start and a break away try
cost them a place in the 6th round. Caerphilly were 12-0 down inside three minutes the Steelemen crossing courtesy of two excellent runs by pacey winger Andrew Bevan. The first came after just 60 seconds as Gary Davies knocked on collected the starting kick. From the scrum the ball was pushed to the right, Bevan came off his wing running an angle that the visitors failed to pick up, and scoring under the posts, outside half Aaron Bramwell adding the conversion. Two minutes later, Bevan scored again, collecting the ball from the back as the result of another scum in midfield, the winger sprinted down his left wing to score out wide, Bramwell unable to convert on this occasion. Previous Caerphilly teams would have folded at this point, but this seasons resurging team came back fighting, and stayed in the fight until the 40th minute. In fact the Cheesemen were unlucky not to score on several occasions, Prop Matthew Petit making a good run into the 22 on 20 minutes, the ball spinning out to the centres, and eventually spilling out of hand agonisingly close to the try line. Caerphilly more than held their own in the scrum, in fact, they gained possession on a couple of occasions, turning the Ebbw scrum on two occasions as they attacked the Caerphilly goal area. The lineouts were a struggle with Caerphilly missing influential second row Chris Payne, and battling against the Steelmen’s tall back row. Ebbw Vale had to wait until the 2nd minute of injury time to increase their lead. As the home side attacked the visitors No.8 Sam Feehan inadvertently intercepted a long pass to his surprise, but was immediately sacked by three Ebbw attackers. The Caerphilly defence was drifting wide, which left Feehan unfortunately stranded. Penalised for holding on, Ebbw Vale pushed the ball up to the 22, where they performed a text-book catch and drive to score inches from the left had touch line courtesy of captain Will Thomas, entering the second half 17-0 in the lead. Caerphilly came out strong at the beginning of the second half forcing Ebbw to defend for their lives. On 50 minutes, the ball broke loose from an Ebbw Vale ruck deep into Caerphilly territory. Lee Mullane hacked ahead and narrowly lost the race to the line, forcing the home team to clear to the 22. From the resultant lineout, the ball was missed by both teams’ jumpers, but luckily for the Cheese men, fell into the hands of skipper Rob Phillips, playing flanker during the second half. Phillips darted for the line catching the Ebbw defence flat footed, to score close to the posts. Full back Nathan Gittings stepped up to convert, bringing the score to a more respectable 17-7. Ten minutes later The Steelemen pulled further away. Caerphilly pressing for another score had worked their way on the left up to the Ebbw vale 22. As the ball was switched to the right Bevan intercepted a long-range pass, and was away with pace Bramwell adding the conversion. 5 minutes later Ebbw pulled further ahead as centre Greg Roberts chased a good kick down field by Bramwell. Battling with Caerphilly winger Chris Thomas, Thomas won the race to the ball, as it stopped agonisingly close to the try line. With a large in goal area at Eugene Cross Park, Thomas’s attempt to clear the fell inside the goal area and Roberts did well rising quickly to ground the ball before the ball crossed the dead ball line. Bramwell stepped up and slotted another conversion. Giving Ebbw Vale an unassailable 31-7 lead. To be fair to both sides played their parts well, giving referee Matthew Aplin a quite day with his cards, and end to end action, as both sides enjoyed the dry weather and played a good running game. Caerphilly had the last laugh on the day however. During another left to right attack, Nicky Walter sprinted down the left side, only to be bungled into touch. Caerphilly chased the Ball out to the right eventually winning possession as Ebbw cleared ahead. Gittings accepted the kick and charged down the right, passing in the tackle to centre Gareth Miles, cutting inside. Milo drew the defence, laying off to Gareth Locke now playing at outside half. Quickly spotting space out left, Locke placed the “up and under” with immense accuracy, and found outside centre Lee Mullane on the other end to collect and ground on the try line. Gittings converting just as referee Alpin called a halt to proceedings. If the Cheesemen could take that form into their first division campaign, then I’m sure the remainder of the season will be spent hot on the heals of runaway leader Pontypool, a team they still have to play twice this season. Caerphilly play Newbridge away, next Wednesday February 6th, 7.00pm Kick off in a re-arranged fixture. |
| Caerphilly Team | Ebbw Vale Team | |
| Nathan Gittings | 15 - Fullback | Andrew MacLaughlan |
| Chris Thomas | 14 - Right-wing | John R.Williams |
| Gareth Locke | 13 - Outside-centre | Kristian Owen |
| Lee Mullane | 12 - Inside-centre | Greg Roberts |
| Steffan Sankala | 11 - Left-wing | Andrew Bevan |
| Celyn Ashton | 10 - Outside-half | Aaron Bramwell |
| Rob Phillips | 9 - Scrum-half | Tom Edwards |
| Sam Feehan | 8 - Number 8 | Will Thomas (Captain) |
| Rhys Watkins | 7 - Openside-flanker | Gavin Donaldson |
| Gareth Johns | 6 - Blindside-flanker | John McPhail |
| Adam Minty | 5 - Second-row | Neil Edwards |
| Gary Davies | 4 - Second-row | Matthew Griffin |
| Matthew Petit | 3 - Tighthead-prop | Anthony Lott |
| Anthony Payne | 2 - Hooker | Richard Wilkes |
| Gareth Jones | 1 - Loosehead-prop | Aaron Coundly |
| Matthew Griffiths | Replacement | Marc Jones |
| Nick Kibble | Replacement | Ian George |
| Gareth Davies | Replacement | Matthew Williams |
| Alun Ford | Replacement | Rhys Bowen |
| Gareth Miles | Replacement | Richard Downes |
| Ceri Jones | Replacement | Chris Andersen |
| Nicky Walters | Replacement | - |
| Caerphilly Scorers | Ebbw Vale Scorers | |
| Rob Phillips (51 min), Lee Mullane (78 min) | Tries | Andrew Bevan (1,3 & 57 min), Will Thomas (40+2 min), Greg Roberts (63 min) |
| Nathan Gittings (52 + 79 min) | Conversions | Aaron Bramwell (2,4 & 58 min) |
| - | Penalties | - |
| - | Drop-goals | - |
| - | Yellow cards | - |
| - | Red Cards | - |
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