Dominant Falcons triumph in the mud

The Falcons secured a home quarter-final in the British & Irish Cup on Friday night with a straightforward and solid, if unspectucular, win over Cross Keys in the Welsh mud.

In front of around 200 spectators on a wet, though surprisingly not too cold, Friday evening in the county of Caerphilly, four tries gave us a 3-34 victory and a top-four seeding for the knock-out stages.

Among the crowd were nine away fans (at my count), including Smithy and the father of our new signing Ollie Stedman, who said that his young 'un had been quite complimentary about the setup at KP so far.

Stedman made his debut in the back row, and also making a comeback was Jimmy Gopperth at fly-half. I couldn't help but think that this game wasn't the kind of first-team outing that people like he, Ryan Shortland and Jamie Helleur imagined when they joined the Falcons, but it was a professional job by the whole team to get the five points.

The Falcons were almost completely dominant in the first half, bar a missed long-range penalty from Cross Keys. Graham Steadman may as well have stood on our 22 line, if he could have moved the picnic table there from behind the goal.

With the pitch in such poor condition following several weeks of battering from snow and rain it is to the credit of the ground staff that the game was played at all. Unsurprisingly the play was concentrated in the forwards and with the SWALEC Cup-holding hosts having left their captain on the bench among several restings ahead of their impending league visit to Neath, the Falcons found success, though not as much as their dominance deserved.

Stedman scored the first try on his debut on the left, driving through the home defence and crashing down into the mud. Jimmy Gopperth added the conversion but despite attempts at more tries, we were restricted to two penalties for the rest of the first half.

A possible chance went begging when a long pass was floated out towards the left but Tom Catterick knocked the ball out of the waiting Shortland's hands, presumably due to a lack of communication.

Indiscipline was dogging both sides and Dan Hodge became the first of three home players to be sent to the sin bin but the Falcons could not take advantage, going into the break 0-13 up.

After half-time Scott Matthews was the second player yellow-carded and from the resulting scrum, Warren Fury nipped down the touchline for the second try, Gopperth converting. I haven't been Fury's biggest fan since he joined but I thought he had his best game for us on Friday.

Cross Keys finally made it into their attacking third but the ball bounced forward over the line, standing behind the opposite goal I couldn't see how but apparently Andy Higgins beat a Welshman for pace and knocked the ball dead.

The hosts did get on the scoreboard however with a penalty by Dorian Jones, to the delight of a Cross Keys fan near me who didn't want her team nilled at home since we conceded at Newport in December.

Normal service was soon resumed however, the Falcons' scrum dominating against the tiring home forwards. Two penalty tries, the second prompting questions from home supporters as it followed a yellow card for Cross Keys captain and replacement Rob Nash, sealed our bonus point, a fifth in six B&I Cup group games.

The game ended 3-34 and as the players walked off the state of the pitch could be seen – almost every one was covered from head to toe in mud. Richard Mayhew stood out as he had only been on the pitch for the last 15 minutes.

Post-match, I for one enjoyed some excellent banter with some home fans, and the players seemed to have a good time for an hour too as they milled about with the remaining spectators. More of that on the blog, but just to add a little note to that, for anybody who isn't involved with either club the game will have meant little or nothing. For me, it was a night I will long remember.