Neath v London Welsh - B&I Cup Preview
By Mark W-J
February 24 2011
Moseley’s 26-24 win in Ulster on Wednesday afternoon that they play Bedford on Saturday to determine the seedings for the quarter finals, both clubs having now qualified from Pool C. This effectively renders our Anglo-Welsh games at Neath on Friday and home to Swansea – currently scheduled for Sunday – redundant, as none of us will have any further interest in the competition beyond this weekend.
The All Blacks currently sit in third place in the pool table, one ahead of Welsh, with two wins and two defeats from their four games. They’ve lost to the other two English clubs, each of whom retains a 100% record after four rounds of fixtures, but have won away at Swansea (15-12) and Ulster. In the Principality Premiership, they’re just one point behind leaders Pontypridd and six clear of third-placed Llanelli, with a game in hand on both. The squad listing on their website features three players well-known to the ODP faithful - former club captain Nathan Bonner-Evans, and young backs Greg Evans and Alec Jenkins – while Lee Beach will return to the club he captained before his move to Welsh. Head Coach Patrick Horgan was in charge of the Wales U20 side for two years prior to taking over from another former London Welshman, Rowland Phillips, and his assistants at the Gnoll include former internationals Leigh Davies and Arwel Thomas.
Neath were formed in 1871-72, their first game being against local rivals, Swansea. Although the Gnoll has been their home ever since, games were occasionally played at the Bird-in-Hand Field, which was the venue for London Welsh’s first visit on 22nd December, 1890. Having claimed a draw at Neath we travelled to Llanelli 24 hours later, where the home side were unable to raise a side; on Christmas Eve we took our frustration out on Cardiff, earning our first victory at the Arms Park - another 38 years were to pass before we claimed a second. Three games in little over 48 hours – puts this weekend’s schedule into perspective, doesn’t it? Friday’s game will be our first visit to Neath since August 2005, when two tries from Alex Cadwallader and a penalty from Dylan Pugh secured a 13-3 win in a pre-season friendly. Twelve month later we hosted the All Blacks at Ealing Trailfinders, again claiming the win by a narrower margin of 29-24 with four tries – from the aforementioned Cadwallader and Pugh, plus James Strong and Dan Beard – and nine points from the boot of Tom Marks.
Neath is by far the most successful club side in 20 years of league rugby in Wales, having claimed seven league titles – Swansea have won four, and Llanelli and Cardiff three apiece. They won the inaugural title in 1991 following a period of domestic dominance which saw five players – Jonathan Davies, Paul Thorburn, Kevin Phillips, Stuart Davies and Huw Richards – selected for the 1987 World Cup, while coach Ron Waldron went on to take charge of the national squad. Since the advent of regional rugby in 2003 they have finished top of the Principality Premiership table in five of the seven seasons, also winning last year’s play-off final. The All Blacks were also the winners of the first WRU Challenge Cup in 1972, beating Llanelli 15-9, but had to wait until 1989 to claim their second title, again beating the Scarlets, 14-13. With six wins and a further six appearances as losing finalists they rank third behind Llanelli and Cardiff in terms of domestic cup success, their 28-22 win over Pontypridd in the 2008 final securing a league and cup double.
Although cup glory is beyond us this season – and there are plenty of supporters suggesting that the B&I competition should be scrapped, given the apparent ambivalence of the majority of clubs – this weekend’s fixtures offer London Welsh the opportunity to emphasise to people ‘back home’ that we are an emerging force in the English game, a professional club in every sense of the word. In addition, there’s the prospect of atoning for last week’s performance against Nottingham: with the same opponents due at ODP in a fortnight for the opening play-off game – in front of a live television audience – we could do with a couple of morale-boosting wins. And that goes for the supporters as much as the players and coaches.
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Damn stupid, in my view to let the match become pointless by having fixtures straggled out like this. Each round should all be played same time.
Well at least now I know there will be 2 of us!!
Quote:Mark W-J
What happens if it gets postponed tonight?
More beer!
conv kick
0-7
conv kick
7-7
conv kick
14-7
Neath played in green (ffs why?), and their half-backs were very nippy cutting inside. We were outplayed (in some areas) but perhaps not quite so comprehensively (during the 70 minutes it was 15-a-side) as edge1 suggests. I still think our pack has sacrificed some weight and power in its strive for fitness (Mike Powell apart).
I am fairly sure our penalties conceded outnumbered theirs by a wide margin, we must cut down there, and their passing was crisper and rarely outside the thigh to chest area whereas too many of ours were at above shoulder height. And too many passes were not in front of the player but at him, forcing loss of pace. I also wonder about the wisdom of kicking away possession, and of passing from a catch taken on the touchline deep in your own 22 to a player in centre of the pitch which move just enables the opposition to catch up with the play. Where are the counter-attacks that begin even before the falling ball is caught? But it is easy to be a non-playing coach from the stands, and for that matter being an all-seeing referee.
Good to see Nathan Bonner-Evans again, albeit on the wrong side. I read that he is just recovering from injury - nothing new there then.
Neath has a nice ground, the town is clearly into rugby (the taxi driver stopped me mid-sentence when I started saying how the Under-21s were doing in Rome as he was planning to watch it at home, and when I paused at a poster showing Tom Shanklin a passer-by joined in my musings as to who else was on the poster).
Dave Jackson will be relieved not to have been photographing the monsoon rain.
'And the winning score arrived in the 45th minute via a second try from centre Thomas with Langdon once more converting. During the remainder of the half, the Blacks enjoyed an overwhelming territorial advantage without being able to turn pressure into points.'
Read More [www.walesonline.co.uk]
Our defence was successful most of the time, but as we all know, that's not enough! We must not concede penalties through offside even if the other side offends just as much.
and to even it up - the Neath site thought the ref was fine! -
'...the Blacks were not to be denied their richly-deserved win in a match that, given the conditions, was high on entertainment and excellently refereed by Mr. John van der Merwe of the Scottish Union.'
Game of opinions etc
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:02:26:13:14:33 by adge1.
Galaxy of stars? Last night we had lunar eclipse.
Good to meet Tom Brown who sat with us in the stand last night and today see Dorian Williams come on as a sub for Llandovery.
1. Did anyone keep count of the penalties we gave away? I'll excuse the handling errors on a horrible night but it just seemed the Neath outside half spent most of the second half kicking to touch from a penalty.
2. What has happened to our cup shirts? I thought the anniversary shirt was to be worn in the cup?
Quote:The Stones wrote a song about people like you!nld
Galaxy of stars? Last night we had lunar eclipse.
Good to meet Tom Brown who sat with us in the stand last night and today see Dorian Williams come on as a sub for Llandovery.