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Bargoed RFC - Match Reports 

It was great to see rugby back at Bargoed Park yesterday with spectators present and good crowds watching both the 1st XV and Youth at home. as the Warriors travelled to Brecon.

1st XV 

Bargoed entertained local rivals Bedwas in the opening fixture of the National Championship Cup competition.

Bargoed started well and applied pressure early on and scored from a driving line-out as Bedwas infringed. The home side were awarded the penalty try, and Bedwas also picked up a yellow card.

Bedwas responded superbly by dominating territory and possession over the next 15 minutes but stubborn defence from the Bulls kept them out. 

Bargoed were looking to play an expansive game with width but a series of errors resulted in them coughing up possession as Bedwas were more effective in the contact area. 

Bargoed increased the lead to 10-0 with a penalty from Steff Jones but frustratingly Bargoed continued to make errors and failed to retain possession as Bedwas defended well.

Bargoed continued to defend and kept Bedwas out but conceded a penalty after 38 minutes which resulted in Ronny Kynes receiving a yellow card. 

Bedwas took advantage of this immediately and deservedly got a try from sniping scrum half Rory Harries, which was converted by Dion Macintosh to cut the lead to 10-7. 

The second half seemed to start well for Bargoed when Rhys Humphries went over for a try only to be called back for an earlier knock on. 

The weather deteriorated and Bargoed struggled to get parity with the line-out not functioning as effectively as it had earlier. Bedwas were penalised and Steff Jones increased the Bargoed lead to 13-7 with another penalty. 

Bargoed failed to get a foot hold in the Bedwas half and were under immense pressure as Bedwas looked to push on for the win. The home side defended superbly and managed to hold them out after a series of attacks to close the game out 13-7.

The Coaching and Management Team will know that Bargoed got out of jail and they will be pleased with the result but not the performance.

Director of Rugby Jeremy Rogers said ‘We dodged a bullet there, and the players know that we will need to improve our standards next week at Cross Keys. We knew that Bedwas would be a tough encounter and they threw everything at us.

We conceded some really soft penalties, and the penalty count was far too high, which resulted in us failing to build consistent pressure. However looking at the positives we got the result, our scrum and line-out defence was pretty good, and the defensive shift that we put in was incredible, the boys showed great character and really worked hard to keep Bedwas out’

Warriors

The Warriors travelled to Brecon for a friendly match after the withdrawal of Treharris from the 2nd XV league. It was great to see such a large squad travelling with a number of new faces many of whom had transitioned from Youth team rugby. On the other end of the scale full back Ian Jenkins was starting his 25th season of senior rugby. 

This was a great contest at times in difficult conditions but it was a much bigger and more experienced Brecon that came out on top 22-20 but the Bargoed Young Guns certainly weren’t fazed, and gave a great account of themselves scoring four tries all by front row forwards. Aaron Elliott got one and hooker Kyle Bailey got a hat trick as the front row union celebrated. 

There were some stand our performers up front with Jack Chamberlain carrying well and bulldozing defenders, once again showing how much potential he has.  Kyle Bailey, Ethan Lott and 18 year old Harry Thompson worked extremely hard all day and were excellent in the loose. 

Head Coach Matthew Hutcheon was pleased with the performance of his side ‘There’s plenty to work on but the attitude and commitment shown by the boys today against tough opposition was excellent. It’s great to be back but after 18 months off, and we now look forward to the start of our competition at home to Ystrad Rhondda next week’ 

Youth 

The Youth team had a good start against a committed and big Senghenydd outfit and came away with a convincing 46-0 victory to open their account in the Dragons Youth competition. 

They scored eight tries from 
Ellis Hall, Jack Barry, Rhys Davies, Corey Ireland, Charlie Davies 2 and Rhys Brewer 2.

Brewer also converted three of the tries for a personal haul of 16 points. However this was very much a team effort by Bargoed. 

Head Coach Steven Rose said ‘We’re really pleased with the hard work that the boys have put in and it showed in that performance today. It’s great to see the boys buying in to what we’re doing and playing for each other’

Next week sees the 1st XV travel to Cross Keys, the Warriors entertain Ystrad Rhondda at home and the Youth are away to Caerphilly.