Fixture

The 1st XV saw their hopes of progressing into the third round of the National Plate dashed after falling to a 12-15 defeat at the hands of Division 2 East Blackwood RFC. The Magpies started the match at a great tempo and had the better of the first 20 minutes. In this period Tumble took a 7-0 lead when scrum half Rhodri Jones sniped over close to the posts for centre Leighton McKenna to convert. Blackwood slowly got themselves back into the game and capitalised on a mistake in the Magpies ranks to make the score 7-7. The Wood scored another converted try late on in the first half to make the score 7-12 at the interval.

The second half was an error strewn affair from both sides with the Magpies struggling to get any continuity in their play. Tumble however managed to get over the whitewash for the only points of the half when wing Josh Davies crossed wide out for an unconverted try. The score at the end of normal time was 12-12 and with both sides having score 2 tries each 20 minutes of extra time beckoned. Blackwood kicked a penalty at the end of the first half of extra time to make the score 12-15 and with no further scores in the second half the men from Gwent proceed into the draw for the next round.

The Magpies now have two weeks to compose themselves before visiting Tycroes RFC on 12 November for a key league fixture. A much-improved performance will be required and hopefully we'll see a return to the early season form which accounted for Carmarthen Athletic, Mumbles and Llanybydder.

A copy of the match day programme can be found at the following link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-69OGlm5tyIQ21mWEFyNzVYRm8/view?usp=sharing

Team:

15 James Carter

14 Sam Jones

13 Steffan Price

12 Leighton McKenna

11 Josh Davies

10 Steven Hewitt

9 Rhodri Jones

1 Steven Rees

2 Dafydd Humphreys

3 Kieron Richards

4 Gareth Beynon

5 Hefin Dumbrill (captain)

6 Owain Davies

7 Steffan Owen

8 Nathan Willard

16 James Stephens

17 Rhys Lewis

18 Celt Flint

19 Iwan Morgan

20 Michael Edwards