A season’s double was the potential reward when they faced Gwernyfed on Chippenham Mead. Having defeated the visitors earlier in the season, the Druids were 2 or 3 players short of their strongest squad. Led enthusiastically by veteran prop Julian Powell, their superior league position over the visitors, bode well for the result of the game. The early exchanges were well matched but the Druids looked to have more attacking potential. Gwernyfed were vulnerable to the concerted forward drives of the Druids pack and only the tenacious tackling of the visitors halted the home side. The Druids drew first blood, when from a line out deep in the visitors 22 metre area, the ball was moved across the three-quarter line. It was left to right wing Gareth Rowlands with the simplest jobs of touching down for an unconverted try. Good line out play by the home side ensured a steady flow of possession but the well organised Gwernyfed defence coupled with some Druids miss- handling, kept the score board inactive. At the scrimmage the Druids were slightly bettered, suffering two strikes against the head. Eventually the Druids lead was increased when the visitors were found off-side in midfield and make- shift kicker, Paul Vaughn volunteered to take the kick. He strolled up and put the ball neatly between the posts but in doing so he pulled a hamstring muscle and left the field of play. Poor lad. Just before half time Gwernyfed kicked a 30-metre penalty goal to reduce their deficit to 8 points to 3. The second half saw Gwernyfed have more of the play and the home side were forced to tackle strongly to stifle out the Druids attacks. Ian Jeffs was prominent for the home side in stemming the visitors attacks. From a line out deep in the Gwernyfed half, the Druids set up one of their favourite attacking ploys –the rolling maul! They rolled and controlled, slowly but surely and Hooker Max Dycke crashed over the try line for another unconverted try. The game was virtually over and the Druids kicked two penalty goals by Centre Gareth Jones, to make the final score 19 points to 3.A scrappy game with plenty of errors but the Druids were the better side and were deserved winners. Scrum Half Ram Luna and Gareth Jones played well in a game that was at times tetchy and tested the patience of players and referee alike. One bad feature was the back chat that some of the druids gave the referee-this must be stopped. |