Fixture

It was a glorious afternoon at Caedelyn and, with a sizeable crowd, it resulted in an entertaining game with total commitment from both sides. It was great to see some familiar faces in the Squirrels’ starting line-up, notably wingers Slogger and Ben Shariff, who both made their mark on the outcome of the match. Rhiwbina’s new crop of youngsters continue to develop, and it was good to see the Rocks fielding several youth players along with some familiar and older faces.

But one thing that wasn’t familiar was their starting playing strip, which was the Rhiwbina alternative home strip.

The usual Rocks strip could be seen in a pile on the far touchline, but had it arrived late? Did it clash with the referee’s green shirt?

Did they want to keep it clean for next week? Who would pay the laundry bill?  These were the questions being asked by those spectators who like this kind of mystery or who have very short attention-spans!

Rhiwbina took an early lead with Dave Gilbert penalty and were having the better of play, but the Rocks struck with two superb counter-attack tries, both converted, to take a 3-14 lead. 

As mentioned, there was total commitment from both teams with some crunching tackles and both teams looked to run the ball from all parts of the field, with Elliot Jones looking dangerous whenever he had the ball. Rhiwbina’s scrummage was very impressive and they constantly put the Rocks set-piece under pressure.
A Rocks kick ahead saw the ball fed to Slogger who made ground down the near touchline and it was that man Elliot who took the pass to score in the fire-station corner. With half time approaching a speculative kick-ahead saw Elliot gather the ball and this time score in the other corner. 
Gilby converted to give Rhiwbina 15-14 lead at half time.

The ref retreated to the changing rooms, closely followed by the Rocks – who soon emerged for the second half with their familiar emerald green and black shirts! Oh, and the ref had changed into a yellow shirt – you work it all out!

The ref soon showed a card that matched his new shirt to one of the Rocks as they infringed in front of the posts and Gilby converted to extend the Squirrels’ slender lead.  Gilby then missed a penalty after some great work from Olly Golden and the impressive Chris Williams, but the Rocks struck back as they scored a try from a driving maul to make it 18-19 in their favour.
Rhiwbina were soon back on the attack and the Rocks were shown a second yellow card and Gilby restored Rhiwbina’s narrow lead. 
The Rocks then put Rhiwbina under an extended period of pressure in both corners and matters were made worse for the Squirrels as Gilby was first shown a yellow card which soon changed to red! But despite this Rhiwbina defence held out and they were soon back in the scoreboard corner and from a driving maul Jamie Deabreu crossed for the decisive try to make the final score 26-19 to the Squirrels.