Composed in Caldy Win

RGC 36 Caldy 21

Friday 12th August

Head Coach Ceri Jones was delighted in his team’s maturity as they defeated newly promoted English Championship side Caldy.

“I think we saw a different RGC tonight, as our control and management of the game stood out.  In the first 30 minutes, you could see their physicality and they tested us.  It was pleasing to see how we dealt with that.  A lot of the problems early on were down to us giving away penalties and giving them territory and when we realised that the game changed.

At times we played the ball and at other moments we pinned them back and got the ball behind them.  We applied the pressure at key moments, and you could see that delivered the tries as the game went on.

The good thing about playing a team like Caldy is that they will offer similar to what the Welsh Premiership sides will come at us with –  a physical set piece with the attacking mauls.  We dealt with that today and it was good to see us get some tries with our driving maul today including 1 with 13 men on the field”

RGC started with intent and some speed in attack and were rewarded with a try from Rhodri King in the corner as the hooker showed some composure to touchdown.

The ball was been shifted quickly with Rhys Tudor and Dion Jones making attacking breaks.

The visitors began to get a platform from the set piece and were helped by RGC conceding several penalties.

Pressure was mounting, and the visitors grabbed 2 tries to take the lead with some solid pack play.  It was clear Caldy wanted to utilise the driving maul and it was proving fruitful.

At times the Gogs were overplaying and forcing a pass which was not finding RGC hands, which meant Caldy were able to clear their line time and time again.  They kicked to touch and looked for the maul to do some damage, but credit to RGC who worked hard to keep them out.

RGC started to get back into the game on the half-hour with a great run down the wing from Afon Bagshaw to cross the whitewash, and minutes later he repeated with 2 solid hand-offs and another try, Sam Earl-Jones converted.

It was then the Gogs turn to get the driving maul going when Bryn Jones pushed over for the score and the lead.

A follow-up try came from another maul and this time Aaron Williams grabbed the plaudits.

Sam Stoddard was collecting the Caldy kicks and in return he pinned them back with a great kick to the corner.

The final score came from a powerful Jordan Scott carry after he crashed over for the final try of the game, with the boot of Sam Rogers getting the conversion.