Fixture

Croesy travelled to Ynysddu with a side consisting of 8 changes from last week due to injuries and unavailibility. As a consequence debut starts were handed to Sam Peard, Micky Witts and Andrew Barlow. Croesy kicked off and were soon putting Ynysddu under some pressure but were unable to keep possession long enough to get an early score. Ynysddu however grabbed a converted try through their outside half on 10 minutes during their first visit into the Croesy 22. This gave Ynysddu some confidence and for the next 15 minutes they were the better side stretching Croesy at every given opportunity.  With Croesy struggling at the scrum and lineout and Ynysddu dominating possesion and the defence becoming more and more difficult Croesy conceded a penalty, followed by a second converted try by the Ynysddu left wing and a further penalty. With just over 20 minutes on the clock Ynysddu were leading 20 points to nil and a heavy defeat looked on the cards. Croesy however battled through the rest of the half and were unlucky themselves when a driving maul near the Ynysddu line appeared to be pulled down only for a scrum to be awarded. Unfortunately for Sam Peard making his debut at prop he was at the wrong end of a number of  refereeing decisions at the scrum, the afternoon came to an end just prior to half-time as he was replaced by Greg Stephens. Paul Fisher who appeared to be struggling was also replaced by Drew Barker in the second row. At half-time the score remained at 20-0.

Croesy started the second half in a determined mood but were again unable to control the ball for a period of time that would enable them to put pressure on Ynysddu. Frustration started to creep in at the amount of spilled possession and a penalty count that was going heavily against Croesy. This frustration led to the first yellow card of the match for Nicky Spanswick who was penalised when he believed that he had successfully jackalled the ball at a ruck. The yellow card however seemed to spur Croesy on and it was soon Ynysddu's turn to have a man sent to the bin for killing the ball at a ruck. Croesy seized on this and mounted more and more pressure on Ynysddu. This resulted in a "spear tackle" on Haydn Simons just in front of the Ynysddu posts for which the player was fortunate to receive only a yellow card.. Just as the sides first two yellow cards ended, Croesy eventually received some reward for their efforts when No.8 Jamie Williams touched down after the Ynysddu pack were pushed over their own line. The try was converted by Haydn Simons.

After all this effort it was unfortunate that Croesy spilled the ball from the kick off and the ball was picked up from a player in an offside position. Ynysddu opted to take a penalty kick at goal, successfully converted by their outside half. With the score at 23-7 Croesy still felt a bonus point was within their reach and after possibly their best series of possession of the afternoon debutant 2nd row Micky Witts dived over in the corner for an uncoonverted try. At 23-12 Croesy were back in the game and looking for a 3rd try to secure the bonus point.

However, probably summing up a frustrating day for Croesy it was Ynysddu who secured the game with a late penaltty goal through their outside half.

This was game where in previous years our heads may have gone down after conceding so many points early in the game, however the second half performance showed the quality of the players in the squad and it was Ynysddu who were happier to hear the final whistle. With better discipline on the ball and at set pieces, particularly early in the game, this side is good enough to challenge any in the league this year