chilling out

Ice Ice Baby
By paul
December 30 2005

Over ten thousand supporters left Stradey Park without even seeing a ball kicked in anger this afternoon. Our festive action round up.

Frozen Out...
Thanks to a mess up of epic proportions nobody bothered to check if the pitch was playable until shortly before kickoff, rather surprising considering the final week of 2005 looks likely to be its coldest. Only those areas in the shade were frozen, but referee Nigel Owen deemed the pitch unplayable just four minutes before play was due to start and the players were sent back down the tunnel. Had the pitch been checked an hour or so earlier, such a farcical situation may not have occurred. I’m sure North Walian supporters weren’t exactly too happy after their wasted journey, or more importantly Ray Gravell.

Blues 43-21 Dragons...
Bar the opening seventeen seconds, the East Wales derby went to script, with the Piemen heaping evenmore misery on Paul Turner and his Gwenters. Without several key players going into the match, they were left in further disarray when Kev Morgan hobbled off with an overly familiar ankle injury. Morgan broke down as he looked to collect Nicky Robinsons’ chip through, which gave the Blues a rather fortunate opening try. Recent returnee Nathan Brew could not have got the Dragons off to a try scoring start inside seventeen seconds, with a try. Brew also departed the field with a broken thumb.

A dubious looking pass from Craig Quinell allowed Craig Morgan a simple run into score. But it was the other wing in Blue and Black who was awarded the largest cheer of the night, Jonah, who lets face it most of the twelve thousand strong crowd were there to see, scored shortly after the interval following some nice interplay. Rhys Thomas’s on either sides traded scores, to make it 36-16 but the Dragons never stopped playing and leveled the final quarter with a converted score each, averting even more negativity in the process. Well at least Luscombe looked quite tidy.

Premiership Review...
Cross Key’s came away from Rodney Parade with a shock 18-16, but when you consider half the Newport team was filling in the gaps for The Dragons, it’s not that much of a surprise. Good crowds at Neath (eight thousand, 31-13) and Maesteg (four thousand, 10-13) for their derby games with Aberavon and Bridgend respectively. Llanelli and Swansea (38-40) played out a high scoring match at a less frozen Stradey on Christmas Eve.

The State of Play Recommends...........Grand Slam 2005 Collectors Edition DVD