Fixture

Well,after the heroics of Wednesday at Ystrad we decamped to local rivals Morriston today with great expectation. Unfortunately, whether due to the fatigue endured from a grueling fixture list of playing a third game in 9 days or just a bad day at the office we came off second best today with a  30-16 defeat.

The game did fall in to the well-worn cliché of “two half’s” with Birch looking the more likely side to walk away with points in the first half but totally subdued in the second.

The “Monkeys” started well with an early penalty putting them in front 3-0 before Steff Castle equalized 3-3 and Birch took the initiative with a number of sorties in to the home 22 only to be thwarted by the Morriston defence. But another penalty put us on the front foot 3-6 and although the hosts were looking sprightly with ball in hand there was a feeling that this was going to be a close game.  A temporary reduction in numbers appeared to be no drawback as two forward drives with a seven-man pack brought a further penalty advantage to Birch and even though Morriston felt the early necessity to bulk up their pack we turned around 3-9 in front.

What happened next will remain unexplained but the home side despite almost conceding with a held up try decision took on a raise in confidence, energy and enterprise to go over for two well worked tries and at 17- 9 this was a different game!

To be fair, our lads never gave in individually and the fighting spirit cannot be faulted but we were now chasing a game and the inevitable consequences were to strike home as Morriston increased their lead with two further penalties and a well worked backs move try to take the score to an insurmountable 30-9.

Centre Hanno Dirkson with the support of Scott Gibson’s short tap and go’s managed a consolation try but all in all it was a Derby defeat that no one likes but has ultimately done no damage to our survival prospects with rivals Brynamman and Bridgend Athletic also losing on the day.

We now have a run of home games starting with Kenfig Hill on Saturday 6^th April. We still have 3 games in hand over both the Athletic and Brynamman and providing we can pick up a few points here and there we will hopefully live to fight another day.

Next run of home games :-

Sat April 6^th Kenfig Hill

Sat April 13^th Morriston

Wed April 17^th Tondu

Sat April 20^th Builth Wells

Sat April 27^th Skewen

Man of the Match was a difficult choice today with many of the usual culprits catching the eye but some also suffering from a lapse in discipline. The choice was therefore handed over to a group of opposition supporters who selected:-

Scott Gibson.