Fixture

The sun greeted us this morning at the Centre of Excellence.  We were a depleted team with 3 out injured and 2 on holidays but the boys who did turn up had a smile on their face and were raring to go.  It was good to see Gabriel able to come along and support the boys after his recent operation, especially as he had cookies and muffins, they were well received!  The first game of the morning was against Ystrad Rhondda, this morning Josh from Newbridge joined our team to even out the numbers – thank you Josh. 

Ystrad Rhondda kicked off, the ball went straight to Oliver who caught it and ran through the defence to open the scoring.  It wasn’t long before we saw Dafydd Price score one of his trademark tries.  The next try was all about teamwork, Jensen made a great tackle, allowing us to gain possession, Hudson had a good carry making ground, he popped the ball up to Harvey who was stopped just short of the line, he passed to Dafydd to score.  Passing the ball was the key today, using the width of the field and avoiding contact saw Dafydd take the hat trick. Excellent support work from Jensen allowed him the next to cross the whitewash.  The boys had found the confidence that has been lacking of late, Oliver had a good run to claim his second of the morning.  The Dale were playing near the try line a knock on gave Ystrad Rhondda the scrum, the Dale defence soon took possession and saw Liam run through the defence to score.  Hudson Mathias added himself to our ever-growing injury list with reoccurring ankle injury.  The Dale were awarded a scrum, it was passed out to Oliver who dummied the defence to score a hat trick.

After a much deserved drink the second half started with Dafydd chasing down the opposition and tackling into touch.  From the line out the team ran and passed well resulting in Dafydd scoring in the corner.  From a tackle Harvey was in to pick up the ball and was heading to the try line before offloading to Jensen to score.  Jensen kicked from the restart, Oliver chased the ball, caught and scored.  The next phase looked as though Oliver was heading to the try line again but there were a few defenders on his tail, Dafydd was on the wing in support, he called for the ball which was offloaded and he crossed for the final try of the day.

Ystrad Rhondda 0 – Oakdale 13

MOM - Harvey Lyons and Oliver Cooke