Preamble
A pleasing sell-out crowd and a Big (Chief) Red Cloud-sponsored Nige reffing augured well for a festive atmosphere and a good local derby contest. Even the weather was fair at the start, favouring the Blues in the first half before turning Newport Docks evil in the second, when the unfortunate Dragons had to play into the bitter wind and driving rain.
The Encounter
After a start almost as bright as the Dragons’ peeled-satsuma away kit, things looked promising. Decent lineout ball and early indications of a strong mauling game, Ashton Hewitt vigorous with and without the ball, Moriarty making a couple of inroads and Taine Basham a whirlwind of energy. After 20 minutes I realized I hadn’t used the fast-forward button, which is normally a technological godsend when watching a recording of a Drags match.
There was even a half-break from The Most Handsome Man in Rugby™, finally getting some injury-free game time for the Dragons.
Perhaps inevitably, the tide slowly turned in the Blues direction. Cardiff’s ‘interesting’ but effective breakdown tactics and the Drags poor clear-out work / sluggish passing combined to slow us down. The Blues defensive line speed and some seasonal goodwill from Nige’s patrolling of the offside line saw us under pressure and getting pushed backwards.
Our attempts to cross the gain line emphasized the poor quality of the Drags front five as ball-carriers, and our 9’s sluggish service meant they often made a standing stand rather running on to the ball at speed.
In contrast to Cardiff, the Drags deployed a more passive gain line defence, spreading across the field like a tangerine daisy chain. Unfortunately, this suited Jarrod Evans’ excellent heads-up with time-to-spare game management. A lovely dummy sent Welsh Legend Wainwright into the wrong player as Evans glided through a gap to send winger Lewis-Hughes in for the opening try.
Cardiff were taking command, and some very poor box kicking from Rhodri Williams who seemed to misjudge the conditions and playing surface (we are not in Rodney anymore, Rhodri), meant the bright start petered out. But lo, against the run of play the Drags executed a good driving maul from a lineout, and that man Basham bustled over for the touchdown. 10-5 at the, ahem, oranges.
Cardiff started the better at the outset of the second half, unsurprisingly with all the elements in their favour. But some dolly-drop passing on the Drags 22 saw an intercept from Basham, who sprinted towards the Cardiff line chin-on-chest, like a ram looking for a gate. Evans caught up and made the tackle, but Basham kept the ball alive, and after a couple of surge-and-fumbles Screech scorched over at lightspeed..
That was as good as it got from a Drags perspective. The Blues forwards further dominated the collisions and started to push our boys backwards in the tackle. The Drags bench didn’t really make an impact, and after a poor clearing kick from Williams Josh Adams went on a typically surging run. Lane was unable to gather the resulting cross-kick, but Nige yellow-carded Hewitt for I think loitering in his own 22, and a tired Drags team started to leak penalties. The Blues eased to a 16-12 victory.
Pastries and Crumbs
Although the set-piece forward battle was well contested it underlined how both teams have underpowered packs, with neither side really getting the upper hand. The Blues defence was quicker and better organised, and the Drags suffered throughout from slow ball and a lack of forward power. Basham is a fierce competitor and earned his Player of the Match status, and he seems a good leader by example.
Cardiff’s ancient warriors Gill, Andrews and Turnbull seemed to be enjoying themselves, but their Welsh Legends had quiet games, as did our lads Dee, Wainwright and Hill. Amos and Adams seem good acquisitions for the Blues, and Tovey’s last quarter kicking game (the best one of the 3 fly-halves on show) complimented Jarrod’s earlier passing and running work to close out the game.On a positive note, I always thought the Dragons has a squad good enough to compete rather than capitulate as was the case under Blarney Jackman’s peculiar tenure, and so it seems to be. We need more front five oomph which would hopefully speed the half-backs up, but otherwise matches are now bearable to watch. Marvellous.
As reported by OvallyBalls operative MisterIks.
On the telly this week
Friday 27th December
| Ulster 35 – 3 Connacht | 19:35 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Bristol 21 – 26 Wasps | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 28th December
| Treviso 36 – 25 Zebre | 13:00 | Freesports |
| Northampton 33 – 26 Gloucester | 14:00 | BT Sport 2 |
| Edinburgh 29 – 19 Glasgow | 15:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Harlequins 30 – 30 Leicester | 16:30 | Channel 5 / Premier Sports 2 |
| Munster 6 – 13 Leinster | 18:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
Sunday 29th December
| Exeter 14 – 7 Saracens | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
Ovally Balls 
Taulupe with a splendid pick up and run through a couple of lads. He made 10+ metres before flicking the ball out of the back of the hand to a supporting player, who dropped it. Different class.
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Toby looking as fit as a butcher’s dog, playing the full 80 on his comeback.
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Whoop!
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Double bugger. Embra win. Damn.
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Five points
Ya Bass
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Sharing the spoils over the to games seems about right.
I really enjoyed both matches
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Big BP win for impressive Racing in Brive.
Final score 20/44
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Handy for the Scottish teams to share the wins. Edinburgh’s pool is quite tight and Glasgow look safe for 4th but need to put some pressure on the Cheetahs.
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Yes. Mind, I haven’t seen Ioan Lloyd play for a few weeks, but I’m sure he’s still in the top 3.
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Stade Français surprisingly lead 14/10 at HT in Montpellier. Quite entertaining.
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Harlequins blast over from a metre out through Chris Robshaw. 27-13. Leicester going down?
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Robshaw immediately leaps into the top 3 in the world in my ever-moving best players list.
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But… but… but…
Leicester have all these World Class ENGLAND players! No team with all these World Class ENGLAND players will go down, shirley?
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And players like Leinster B legend Noel Reid, plus the 900th best Welsh backrower in Reffel.
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Hooray! Getting to watch yesterday’s Ulster match.
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Mike Ford in the coaching box. Time to work the magic, Mikey.
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An Embra fan writes,
Mon The Bad Guys
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Turned over to Munster v Leinster, which is much less exciting.
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The absolute state of them.
Merry Xmas, everyone. Ulster looking good until it all unravels next week. Probably not much else matters.
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Minging wind at Thomond Park (conditions good otherwise) but Munster are looking at a scoreless first half. Not sure it being blowy excuses that. 0-13 to the relentless evil with two minutes left in the half, although the relatively-mundane evil is attacking.
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3-13 now.
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I don’t care who wins. When it comes to evil, is banal really better than extravagant?
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Larry, youse can still catch Leinster, my dog in this fight is that Embra are currently top of our pool, a pointless outcome for Munster keeps us there, but Leinster winning takes the Dubliners at least 11 points clear of your lads
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Should a Cork man be reffing this game?
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Ticht, we’re not going to catch them, although Glasgow struggling (relatively) and us playing well does make second place a genuine target.
The race for the other conference is a lot more interesting. Could see Embra getting top spot, certainly, although Munster tend to grind out wins in the league even if they’re not a splendid edition (which this lot is not – words I will probably eat at Ravenhill next week).
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That must be 470 phases by Leinster
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As things stand I reckon one of Ulster, Munster and Embra have the best chance of getting to the Pro Woo final to lose to Leinster. Glasgow’s target now is to get into the Big Cup standings.
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Larry, Embra’s away form will have to get beyond fucking appalling for us to get top spot, but we are building a wee bit of depth, the league fixtures during 6 N are not kind to us, but hopefully we will get big cup rugby at least next year
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This kid at nine for Leinster has been good.
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Pop quiz: tell me what is strange about this scoresheet to your eyes and why (and I don’t mean Ponty fluking a win against the Legends 3rdz)
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Welsh speakers are obviously disqualified from this quiz.
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What is the Welsh word for essai and does it begin G or CH?
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Een
Die
Tree
Pedwar
Pimp
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Two grubbers v three charge downs is not that unusual
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That’s all my Welsh. Less than I knew when I was four.
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Dunno, but that Ponty kit looks boggin’
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Lazza is Welsh qualified. Expect a call from Wayne Pivac very soon.
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The only way to properly score a match.
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Well, whatever ‘try’ is, I’m not sure what the other one could be!
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“What France will turn up?”
“Forwards decide who wins, backs decide by how much”
“Earn the right to go wide”
“It doesn’t matter who Leinster pick”
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So CAE could have 3 tries, only two converted, and two penalties.
Ponty – that’d be a shedload of penalties, even if they have two tries.
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Thaum is winning on points. I’ll wait for tomp to come in and sweep the win.
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It’s a shame they don’t play that game on the 26th any longer. The Ponty lads always misunderstood the meaning of Boxing Day.
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This is the worst it’s ever been. Might not be the best Leinster first XV – in fact, fairly sure it’s not – but the depth is endless. But it’s hard for me to complain because they’ve been pretty generous. Ulster’s first choice 23 has nine – nine! FFS! – Leinster lads in it. And there’s quite a few more filling out the squad.
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Tam, the Moriartys were “handy” players iirc, for Swansea
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Larry, I can’t think of any other team who could send a non-first team 23 and be leading at Thomond with 6 mins to go
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Plus 2 Kiwis, 3 Saffers, 2 English ladz, a Zimbo or a Munster lad as reserve 10.
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It’s a Munster second team as well, mind, Ticht. Leinster have got a few fellas that’d be in 1st choice selection – Lowe, Fardy, Toner, the hooker(s).
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@tomp – I reckon we stretch to about six Ulster lads in the best 23. Maybe seven.
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