GRITTY DISPLAY BY CARDI’S

Division 3 west

Cardigan 22 Neyland 27

Cardigan will entertain championship favourites Pembroke in the final league game of the season this weekend and this will bring the curtain down on what has been a very difficult campaign for the Ceredigion side.

Coaches Colin Davies and Mathew Moneghan have struggled to get a team together from week to week and the Gwbert Road Club and its officials have some very important decisions to make over the summer months.

There is a real prospect of there being no senior rugby at the King George in two years time as playing numbers are becoming less and less and interest is fast diminishing in the Gollop Stand. The recent home game against Llangwm brought probably the smallest crowd to a senior match since the stand was built and the writing is very much on the wall.

Had the coaches not had such a dependable hard core of players to call on this season when the chips were really down they may have struggled to complete the season and these players deserve a huge amount of credit as indeed do the youngsters who have stepped up to the plate. Time will tell as to whether there will be senior rugby in Cardigan but there is no doubt that these are indeed troubled times.

The Pembrokeshire Scarlets will represent a tough end to the campaign but against Neyland the hosts showed plenty of true grit and character and were in this game throughout before they were eventually edged out.

The Cardi’s crossed for tries from centre Casey Walters, busy prop Andrew Jones, outstanding blind side Tom Taylor and full back Keiran Hurley, one of which was converted by John Lumb.

For the All Blacks twin brothers Jimmy and Scott Bird shared three tries between them with the former bagging a pair. Others to cross were Iestyn Evans and George Williams as they helped steer their team to a rare double over Cardigan following a one point win earlier in the season.