Fixture

Good weather and a good crowd greeted Birchgrove as they ran out today against Title Contenders Nantfyllon, the last team to beat us and the only team left in the league who could take a double scalp over us following the close defeat at Nanty in early January.

The home side immediately took the game to their high flying opponents and pressure was to tell with the first penalty award falling to Nick Fisher who maintained his success record following six consecutive successes last week against Glais 3 – 0.

Nanty quickly showed though that they were not here for the ride and put some useful forward and back combinations together. But it was Fisher who was to extend the home lead with his second penalty 6- 0 before the home side suffered an early setback as scrum half Leigh D’iulio was adjudged to have illegally prevented a quick Nanty penalty and dispatched to the side lines for ten minutes.

The normally reliable away 10 missed the opportunity to cut the lead and Birch were able to weather the disadvantage of being down to 14 men admirably and could have gone further ahead with Jordan Williams only  falling foul of the touch judge in a strong burst to the line after good handling from the home backs.

The game was developing in to a dogged affair though and you sensed that tries would not be in abundance today with both sets of defences cancelling each other out and maintaining play primarily between the 22 metre lines. Birch were content then to keep the score board ticking over with a third penalty from Fisher (his 9^th consecutive kick) and to go in 9 – 0 leaders at the interval.

With memories of “the game of two halves” still fresh in the minds of supporters and possibly players it was a bit of a worry to see the away 10 come out second half with renewed vigour. First from broken play he was able to make 30 yards or so before meeting with a welcoming committee of Josh Key and Tom Downing but then reminded the travelling supporters of his kicking prowess with two quick well placed penalties

 At 9 -6  a sense of déjà vu was overtaking the home crowd and was not improved as the transformed 10 stepped up again to level the scores with penalty number three 9 -9. and Nick Fisher was to realise that the swirling wind would not necessarily assist his second half kicking as his penalty attempt went wide of the posts.

It was time to dig deep into reserves to win this arm wrestle and the team with the biggest heart looked as if it would take the spoils. So with the scrum rock solid, the line out functioning well through Scott Beard and captain Luke Williams and even nicking a few loose throws from the opposition and the marauding Rob Green, Josh Key and Leigh and Rob  D’iulio taking the game aggressively to the opposition it was Birch who looked more like winning the day.

 It was Fisher again who first steadied the nerves with a low well driven penalty 12 -9. Then helped along by a bit of a “Comedy of Errors” phase of play when the ball seemed to bounce around uncontrollably before falling in to the hands of Luke Beynon it looked as if he could settle the game as he burst in to open ground with the line in his sights. Although on this occasion his legs let him down the supporting pack were soon on hand to cause enough chaos to bring a further Penalty.

You know the rest !! ………………………… He was back on form and slotted the final score of the game over for a well-deserved and hard fought 15 -9 victory.

Although this was a day for the kickers both teams had contributed to a man to an intriguing contest which may not have had the thrills and spills of a try fest but was a showcase for the honesty, integrity, heart, skill  and endeavour of all thirty plus players who contributed to the game.

 Well done to both sides a credit to grass roots Rugby.

For Birch, only one game left, the re arranged game at Briton Ferry to be played on Sat May 6^th when the final league placings may have become clearer with sides having made up their games in hands.

As we have said before all we can do is keep winning. See you there !