Cardigan 66 St Davids 12
Three tries from Cardigan centre Marcus Castle helped cement a comfortable win over St Davids by ten tries to two.
Town postman Castle who has played in several positions in the team due to his versatility slotted in comfortably into the hosts midfield and he proved to be a handful albeit against a very limited Saints outfit who could only travel with a bare sixteen players.
Cardigan who are one of the favourites for the division title were far too powerful for the visitors in this division three opener and they got off to a perfect start when scrum half Luke Rogers crossed for two tries in the opening few minutes.
Rogers who left Division one side Crymych at the end of last season is a talented half back and he will surely miss the challenge of rugby at the much higher level. However his return to his roots is good news for the Cardi’s and he will certainly score plenty of tries in division three.
One of his early touchdowns was converted by stand off Llyr Jones before the Saints bounced back with a try from centre Fraser Watson and the extras were added by winger John Miles.
Cardigan were quite ragged and unorganised at times in the opening half hour but they eventually settled and scored further tries through open side Kieran Hurley, centre Castle and full back Alun Jenkins two of which were converted by Jones and the visitors who struggled for a side and who could only muster one replacement were almost out of the contest at the half way stage at 33-7 down.
To their credit St Davids battled away and they were rewarded just after the break with a try from centre Anton Mathews following a break from full back Rhys Evans but the floodgates then opened up after this as tries were run in for fun by Castle who completed a hat trick, number eight Colin Davies, full back Jenkins with a super run from deep and hard working second row Dean Harries. Stand off Jones and centre Emyr Harries shared conversion duties to slot over two apiece and Rogers added another.
Overall this was a decent showing from the Cardi’s with none better for them than inside half Luke Rogers who combined well with Llyr Jones at ten. Others to shine were Castle, experienced back rower Davies and busy flanker Hurley.
The Saints face a tough time this season with so few players to choose from but they showed tremendous spirit with none better for them than full back Evans, utility back Watson and back rower Curt Buchanan.
This weekend Cardigan travel to play Tregaron for the very first time in their history in a league match. The North Ceredigion men gave Milford a tough time on the weekend before the Mariners just got over the line to win by 20-15 with the Tregaron tries coming from Rhydian Davies and Gareth Jones.
