A bit quiet lately

With the weather forcing the cancelation of most rugby it's been a bit quiet lately. A good performance on a cold night saw us run out comfortable winners against a not very good Heol-Y-Cyw side. Baker cleaned up in the line out taking many throws cleanly, only to let himself down by dropping everything else around the park. The one time he didn't figure in the back line to balls up a flowing move Lee P decided to fumble instead.

A tip for anyone thinking of passing to Baker; throw it 4 foot above his head and give him 2 lifters. ;-)

Let's hope the weather relents and we can get in a few games before Xmas.

I've taken some part time work recently at the CSA, I was quite suprised when a number of forms turned up relating to a few well known Gilfach players. Here's a few of the printable ones. (I'll have to hide their identity to avoid being sued)

I don't know the identity of the father of my daughter. He drives a Black BMW X5 that now has a hole made by my stiletto in one of the door panels. Perhaps you can contact BMW service stations in this area and see if he's had it replaced.

I do not know who the father of my child was as all squaddies look the same to me. I can confirm that he was in the Welsh Guards.

I am unsure as to the identity of the father of my child as I was being sick out of a window when taken unexpectedly from behind. I do remember the smell of horse sh&%t. I can provide you with a list of names of men that I think were at the party if this helps.

I cannot confirm the identity of the fathers of both my twins. The father of Child A is Mr xxx xxxx. The Father of child B is not know as I had sex with several other men at the party.

Well must get back to work, busy doing my Xmas shopping online.

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Lost for Words....

What can you say about last week's game ?

Do we just need to turn up to win ?

Someone will do something that will win it for us....

It's no good playing and waiting or hoping that someone will stand up, take the game by the scruff of the neck and win it for the rest of the team. Too many players were just going through the motions and not really trying. Perhaps the lack of competition for places is making people complacent. We need to buck up our ideas or this is going to be a very hard, long and un-rewarding season.

I appreciate that we had a fairly inexperienced back line but there is a wealth of experience in the pack. The combined age must be about 265!! ;-)

The DVD of this game will make interesting viewing I think.

Best of luck to the boys playing tonight against Heol-Y-Cyw, let's get the right result and just as importantly let's give a good performance.

What happened ?

How to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory ! what more can be said about last Saturday’s game. We completely dominated territory and possession but failed to convert this advantage into points. By the time Digger was attempting 50 meter penalties in the dieing minutes we should have been two scores in the lead.

A couple of areas still concern me, namely the lineout and the half-back partnership. With the lightweight height available we should be comfortably winning every one of our own throws and disrupting the opposition as much as possible. This is just not happening; the lineout looks hesitant and uncoordinated.

The half-back partnership is a more complicated situation; who starts at 9 ? Fryer or Brighty? The same at 10 ? Digger, Lee or Adam P ? And more importantly what combinations of these work best. I would like to see a 10 start that has a good relieving touch kick, the practice of swapping centres for outside halves in order to clear our lines is unsettling.

Who ever the coaches pick for Saturday’s match, all the best let’s get back on track with a clinical performance and let’s turn pressure into points.

I'm a bit tired today; I couldn't sleep at all last night a couple of thoughts kept racing round in me head:

Why is it considered necessary to nail down the lid of a coffin?

Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?

Why can't they make the whole plane out of the same stuff that the black box is?

Can fat people go skinny-dipping?

Whose cruel idea was it for the word "lisp" to have an "s" in it?

Remember it's Thursday so get up the club tonight to watch last weeks match and take part in the quiz.

Until next time, It's goodbye from me.

Thursday night again

It's a sure sign of getting old that these Thursday nights are coming around quicker every week. So it's the usual routine training ;-) then over the clwb to watch last Saturday's masterful demolition of Ton. A few pints and perhaps a go at the quiz or a couple of hands of card bingo to finish off the night; can't drink too much because there's work tomorrow.

Saturday's match against Llantwit should be a good test, lets hope we're all fit and available for selection. Will it be more or less the same team? Who knows what goes on when the coaches get together to pick the side ? What did they think of last weeks performance ? First half line out and scrum was pretty poor, will they wield the axe ? Will they look to get a big boot in at 10 ? if I knew all the answers I wouldn't be here writing this I'd be off doing it myself !!

Best of luck to the boys for Saturday and if anyone see's me tomorrow be gentle and don't talk too loud.

Doesn’t it feel good….

….to beat Tonyrefail in their own back yard. There was a lot of talk last week about Ton’s poor start to the season and how Gilfach had won their last 4 and this would be an easy game. The first half proved how such thinking is best avoided when your talking about this local derby, the form book is thrown clean out the window.

As much as it gripes me to give them beer sales I thought a pint before the game would go down a treat. I was saved from the torture of adding my hard earned shekels to the Ton coffers by the fact that they closed the bar before the game! So it was make our way down to the field and wait for the match or take a stroll up to The Red Gate..... Red Gate it was then.

Arriving at the field some ten minutes after what was supposed to be the start of the match I was surprised to see that Gil hadn’t yet taken the field. Slight cock-up on the transport front I was reliably informed. Nice to see things haven’t changed that much.

Ton controlled the first half and were probably deserving of their half time lead, Dai Griff controlled the game with some experience kicking and our set piece struggled to get going. Poor line outs and sub-standard scrummaging was the order of the day. The half time break brought a turnaround in play. While the line out improved slightly the scrum was a much improved beast and Ton regularly found themselves retreating at a rate of knots. Some good running behind the scrum help move the pack down field and ensured that we achieved the desired result and left the field victorious 28-10. Although the backs played well in the second half, I have my reservations about team selection. Injury and player availability no doubt dictate to a great extent the team and with the limited resources available the coaches probably have little selection decisions to make, but I would like to see a player with a good boot at 10 which would allow Adam Priday to use his strong running and tackling out wide.

It was good to see the bulk of the supporters were made up by Gilfach people and the while there was plenty of good humoured banter there was little or no nastiness. The dilemma I faced before the game about putting money over their bar disappeared as I eagerly rushed back to their club house to take up the bragging rites for the next couple of months.

The day was rounded of perfectly with the past & present players evening. It was so good to see so many old players back in the clubhouse. Let’s hope the enjoyed it so much that they don’t leave it so long before their next visit.

Llantwit Fadre next week on the Welfare Park should be a Ding Dong of a game, so let’s see you all there supporting the team and hopefully celebrating afterwards in the clwb.

Mission Complete...

I travelled away with the 1st's last Saturday to watch the Cup game @ Ynysddu. I think we can all be satisfied that we came home with the right result. The conditions did not allow any "sexy" rugby and our forwards ground out the result with some "up the jumper" rugby. I think Boxer had more up his jumper than most. Playing against a side from a lower division is always difficult; you're expected to win and anything less than a comfortable victory is seen as a disappointing result.

I must say that I was impressed by the set up in Ynysddu; the clubhouse was well decorated and maintained and the benefit of being situated on the field is clear for all to see. Oh if only we had a rich benefactor that could build us a new clubhouse nearer the field. Mind you our club is looking rather good with all the recent decorating that has been carried out. Well done everyone involved.

Moving on the youth team, I watched them play last week against Treherbert and although the result favoured our visitors there was plenty of plus points from the Gilfach point of view. There are several promising youngsters in the team and I can only hope they develop to their full potential and continue to move up through the ranks into the senior setup. We have lost far to many players at youth level and the coaches for the senior sides need all the talent they can get.

Although there was plenty of passion on display I was rather disappointed in the attitude of several youth players though. We all know that rugby is a physical game but when players are getting encouraged to commit pointless acts that could easily get punished by the yellow or indeed the red card then they need to be made aware of they're actions. Ten minutes in the bin will hurt the team far more than a pointless stamp or sneaky punch delivered to impress the watching crowd.

All in all it's been an OK start to the season. If we are going to push for honours, 1st's, 2nd's & youth then we need to get more players training and making themselves available for Saturday.

Well that's the first of my little rants for the season, let me know what you think, let's get some debate going and help inject a little passion into the club.

PS Just a reminder of the Past & Present Players night being held on November 3rd all players welcome.