Fixture

Following their handsome Cup victory last week Birchgrove travelled to Bryncoch today desperate to recover their league form following two recent disappointing reversals.

The game started with obvious intent from the visitors who managed to keep the home side entrapped in their own 22 for almost fifteen minutes albeit aided and abetted by the home side’s reluctance to take the easy relieving kick option when confronted by the aggressive first line defence tackling of Adam Percival, Jordan Williams and the brothers Diulio.

It was a surprise therefore that Bryncoch were given the first option to score when having broken out into  previously unchartered territory of the visiting 10 metre line they were awarded a penalty which their number 13 pulled wide. It was not long though before Birch were back on the offensive and No 10 Nick Fisher was more accurate with his penalty shot to take a lead 0 – 3.

Bryncoch responded with their own period of pressure on the visiting line and were granted a penalty when Birchgrove were adjudged to have hauled down an advancing forward drive. The resultant penalty and first of a swathe of yellow cards for Birchgrove could have handed the advantage to Bryncoch but the visiting defence held firm and probably the best home chance of taking some control of the game bypassed them as Nick Fisher’s raking kick put the visitors back on the front foot.

With the bit between their teeth Birch were now looking to increase their score and a number of forward sorties including a Double Dummy fifty (sorry five ! ) yard run from Coach Darren Poland started to punch holes in the home defence. Reward was soon to come as after 30 minutes of play some clever interplay between backs and forwards culminated with Poland handing on to Flanker Leigh Diulio who scrambled towards the line and with the hefty assistance of a Josh Key shoulder was adjudged (much to the annoyance of the home crowd) to have crossed for the first try of the game. There remains some confusion about the conversion with one flag up and one flag down but ever the optimist we will award it to Nick Fisher to take the game to half time 0- 10.

Bryncoch started the second half attempting to apply some forward supremacy which they did manage to achieve in part at least enough to get themselves in to a scoring position as they registered their first points through a Craig Thomas penalty when Birchgrove were temporarily down to 13 men !!!

Restored to 15 however Birchgrove were starting to make their more organised back structure start to stretch the opposition and when a Nathan Jones, Nick Fisher, Adam Percival move was brought to an illegal end Nick Fisher hammered another nail in the home coffin with his second penalty 3 -13.

The game unfortunately now took on a bit of a  Scrappy air as the home pack were prepared to arm wrestle for supremacy which they did achieve to a certain extent. The visiting forward response though from the likes of Tom Downing, Captain Luke Williams, James Evans and debut Prop Roy Jones was outstanding. Josh key is also worthy of particular mention for  not only fearlessly cleaning up at the back of a sometimes retreating scrum but turning the difficult ball into attacking runs continuously frustrating the home side’s ambitions. The frustrations did eventually spill over leading to yet another surprising admonishment and yellow card for the visiting side from the referee but justice prevailed and it was Fisher again who took advantage of a penalty chance to extend the lead to 3 – 16.

Birchgrove, now slowly exerting  full control, saw the game out with some style. The pack who had worked tirelessly all afternoon even though at times under some pressure held firm to give Josh Key the opportunity to hand on to Nathan Jones who set off on a now familiar low centre of gravity piercing run towards the line before passing on to Mathew Birdsey for a debut try and final score (we think) 3 -21.

A good win and all round team effort, even allowing for the sometimes irrational distribution of yellow cards,  which meant for half  the game time Birch were understrength. These are the type of games against stubborn and committed opposition where an ugly win is sometimes preferable to a silky performance and no player was hiding from the hard work and committment ethic yesterday.

As for Bryncoch, we are aware that they had their early season problems and Coaches James Jenkins, Craig Thomas and Christopher Maggs stepped in at the last minute to steady an almost sinking ship. We wish them well for the future and trust after yesterday’s spirited effort they are not faced with a Bob Bradley-esque task !!