Caerphilly 64 – 19 Llanhilleth
Saturday January 7, Constructaquote Stadium
The Welsh National League Division 3 East A reached the midway point of the season as Caerphilly welcomed Llanhilleth to The Constructaquote Stadium on Saturday January 7 for a first match in three weeks.
It took just three minutes for the first try as full-back Tom Candy crossed for the first of his hat-trick om the corner, the home side having stolen Llanhilleth’s lineout ball. Fly-half Mathew Hurley added the conversion.
Despite their struggles, the visitors grabbed a score back as they slowly worked their way upfield to win a lineout on the five-metre line. Taking play closer to the line, the ball was spun from the ruck for scrum-half Dan O’Brian to cross the line.
O’Brian’s opposite number Jac Jonathan scored a try of his own shortly after after a great break from Candy down the left hand side. The full-back side-stepped several defenders as he broke from the line, but was tackled short. From the resulting ruck, scrum-half Jonathan collected the ball and dove between Llanhilleth defenders to touch down. Hurley added the additional two points.
Caerphilly were rampant, and had tied up the bonus point with two more tries before the quarter of the hour mark from centre pair Simon Skinner and Matthew Nuthall.
A fifth was added by winger Dan Jones just before half time, with the Castlemen leading 31-5 at the interval.
Caerphilly’s head coach, Bret Davey, made five changes at half time with the match seemingly out of sight. However, the home side were far from done, and minutes after coming on, replacement hooker Rhys Cleverly broke through some lacklustre defending to score. Hurley added another conversion.
Candy was enjoying himself on the flanks, and grabbed his second of the afternoon on 49 minutes. His good work was undone by a reckless yellow card for No8 Josh Williams, and Llanhilleth took full advantage, crossing the whitewash through second-row Alex Hew. Centre John Davies scored from the tee.
However, Caerphilly didn’t slow, and Jones added his second score of the afternoon on the hour mark, before replacement Luke Pearson secured the home side’s ninth try.
Llanhilleth showed fighting spirit to ignore the deficit and score again through Hew, but the Castlemen added a late try with Candy’s third to put the gloss on a fine win.
The win and other results meant that Caerphilly finished the midway point at the top of the table with two games in hand, a position not held by the club for several years and a good catalyst to maintain the position and push for promotion.
On Saturday January 14, the Castlemen attempt to reach the quarter-finals of the WRU National Bowl competition in one of their best cup runs for ten years in a mouth-watering fixture. They welcome well supported Wattstown, currently sitting mid table in the National Division 3 East Central B Division.
• Match report and photography by Mark Tamplin of Caerphilly RFC.