Fixture

It was ‘back to business’ for the newly crowned ‘Crazy Eights’ on Sunday when they entertained near neighbours, Abercarn RFC. With a couple of big money transfers in the close season, predominantly out of the club Oakdale only showed one new signing, Poppy Crewe and questions will be needed to be asked of the management committee about their recruitment policy. Abercarn though had recruited well capitalising on the sad demise of Ynysddu under 8s picking up five new players.

The Dale started off very well showing some great support play to take an early lead with a 1^st half Apples hat-trick from Max Baldwin. The Bananas picked up the mantle in the second period with tries from Josh Bowen, Griff Tovey and Harri Williams but the Dale could not get away from the ‘Carn’ who kept their side of the scoreboard ticking over nicely.

To give the players as much game time as possible another set of 6 minute halves were played and the Apples added further tries with a brace each from Olly Morris and Brodie Baker with that man Griff Tovey bagging another brace for himself and the Bananas squad in the final six minutes to cap off a fantastic start to the season with a 12 try to 7 victory.

It was evident that the players had progressed from the under 7s nicely into the under 8s. Some issues still have to be resolved with the offside line but everyone had a great morning irrespective of the rain. The first recipient of the Player of the Match award, otherwise known as ‘The Shusher’ was Max Baldwin. His hat-trick of tries didn’t even come into the discussions when selecting the winner. It was his determination to make every tag he could and contributing to an impressive amount of turnovers in the game. Well done everyone and see you at training on Thursday.

TRY SCORERS

Max Baldwin x 3

Griff Tovey x 3

Oliver Morris x 2

Brodie Baker x 2

Harri Williams x 1

Josh Bowen x 1

PLAYER OF THE MATCH - MAX BALDWIN