CARDIGAN CLEAR AT THE TOP

Division 3 west

Cardigan 43 St Davids 10

Cardigan once again fielded a very young team for this largely one sided division three affair and some of their new kids acquitted themselves well but these still remain worrying times for the Gwbert Road club.

Coaches Colin Davies and Mathew Monighan worked wonders to assemble a full squad with several players missing through wedding engagements but playing resources are very thin on the ground these days with the youth team about to fold and the alarm bells are ringing in the Gollop Stand.

This is also a growing problem at other neighbouring clubs with Llanybydder also struggling badly for players and having 98 points put on their weakened side on the weekend by Whitland. St Davids are also in the same boat.

This is also being highlighted in the crowd attendance as Cardigan, who have enjoyed one of the highest turnouts in the area for many years had one of their smallest ever crowds on Saturday.

The Gollop faithful were treated to a stop start affair and the whistle happy official in charge contributed largely to this as his pedantic style tested the most patient of spectator.

A serious head injury sustained by Saints prop Dan Murphy in the opening minutes forced the game to be held up for half an hour and this took the steam out of the contest and it struggled for any momentum for the remainder of the afternoon. Thankfully popular front rower Murphy who was well cared for on the touchline, has been discharged from hospital and is on the mend and we at Sportsline wish him well.

Cardigan, who lost the services of hooker Luke Palmer Davies from the same incident opened the scoring soon after the restart when flanker Sion Hughes stormed over and this was converted by Emyr Harries. Right winger Sion Jones added a second try soon after when he intercepted a stray pass and he ran three quarters of the pitch to touch down and Harries added the extras.

Cardigan then needlessly lost loose head prop Scott Payne to a yellow card for offering the referee a bit too much advice and St Davids scored two tries in this period, the first of which was set up by outside half Scott James, who supplied the scoring pass to full back Rhys Morgan. James, playing on permit from Tenby enjoyed a fine game and made some decent breaks and was solid in defence. A second try soon followed when a chip through by fly half James was picked up by Morgan for an unconverted score.

It was the Cardi’s though who enjoyed the final say of the half when Hughes sneaked over from a front of the line peel to make it 19-10 to his team at the break.

Promising young centre Justin Noble scored a fine try just a few minutes into the second half when he slipped his marker and showed a fine turn of pace to run in from just outside the opposition twenty two and this was followed up by a try for co centre Emyr Harries after number eight Colin Davies had initiated proceedings with a telling break. Further tries from winger William Delve after slick hands from experienced prop Richard Jones and replacement winger Rhydian Jenkins completed the victory but there will be much stiffer tests to come for this very inexperienced team who were well led by seasoned back rower Davies and centre Harries.

There were promising displays from a number of youngsters including full back Ben Rogers, second row Osian Rees, half backs Dion James and Sion Rees and replacement number eight Max Evans who carried confidently when he came on in the second half and he would have added to the try count had front rower Ben Hughes not tried to imitate Keith Wood with a chip to the corner instead of a simple pass inside.

This weekend Cardigan play their re arranged WRU Bowl match away at Ferryside and their club treasurer will be hoping for a safe passage into round two as the winners will play Crymych 2nds at home and this would represent a decent pay day at the Cardigan clubhouse. However division 3 central side Ferryside will be very tough to beat.