What a crazy topsy-turvy season 2017/18 turned out to be, not just for the Squirrels, but for a large number of clubs all over the country.
Days lost to the autumn internationals, the Six Nations and a lot of bad weather meant many postponements with some clubs not playing home games for three or four months.
Indeed, fixtures in our division went on until the middle of May, over a month after the official end of season. This is something that the WRU community teams needs to have a serious think about!
It was however pleasing to see that the WRU had sought to address the problem of seconds teams not having meaningful fixtures by the creation of a Conference, with Rhiwbina being one of nine clubs in South and West Wales who could regularly field second teams playing one another.
Another notable feat for the Squirrels was our ability to field FOUR senior teams and a youth team on a regular basis with the 3rds and 4ths playing other clubs’ 2nd XVs – hats off to all involved.
Yet again Division One East Central was a tough one with no easy games.
A solid first game against newly promoted Dinas Powys was followed by a close encounter of the Rumney kind, with the home side gelling in the first half before Rhiwbina woke up, took the game by the scruff of the neck, and won by 7 points.
Llanharan at home was great to watch if you were a neutral, both sides playing good attacking rugby, but frustrating for the Rhiwbina faithful. Another close win at home vs Llantrisant was followed by an agonising 2-point loss away at Ystrad Rhondda.
A top of the table battle against Treorchy at Cae Delyn was very tense with an inconsistent ref but Rhiwbina held out to win by four points. If it’s the Joes away at Blackweir you’ll know what the weather was like – yes, a monsoon and everyone got soaked watching the Joes win no matter how many layers they had on!
Our run in the Plate ended away at Mountain Ash after an 85th minute try awarded by the ref from Aberdare! A fairly dreary game at home to Heol Y Cyw was followed by yet another game that slipped through our fingers, a two point away loss to Wanderers.
We then had the first of our enforced intermissions, a five week break due to internationals, snow and frozen pitches, before impressive away wins at a very cold Dinas Powys and Llanharan got us back on track.
The return fixture against Ystrad was almost a repeat of the away game, the visitors winning by a three-point margin after a hard match.
The home fixture vs the Joes resulted in a good 31-19 win.
There then followed the 2nd-long intermission with Rhiwbina having to catch up on a number of games.
When we did restart, after a five-week layoff, it showed!
A pretty dire game away against Mountain Ash was won as was the following week’s home game against Rumney. By this time in the season when we should have been playing our last game, we still had five more to play and were part of a group of four at the top of the division, whilst other clubs were looking for salvation.
Porth Harlequins came to Cae Delyn not expecting any favours but got a late Christmas present.
Rhiwbina’s next game against Mountain Ash was another where the Squirrels almost managed to grasp defeat from the jaws of victory.
In all, four yellows cards, two each side, 80 points scored, three penalty tries and 7 ‘real’ tries, and a 42-38 win for the Squirrels!
We were well beaten at Treorchy but the following week’s return fixture at Porth saw us gain an excellent win, with Smithy doing his Usain Bolt impression up the middle of the pitch and even chipping ahead to set up a line out which led to another try.
The final game in early May sunshine against Wanderers promised to be a cracker and so it turned out. An emotional time for Jamie and Andrew, and both played well in a dominant Rhiwbina pack, but a last minute Wanderers’ penalty kick stole the game 24-25.
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