Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.
It's a Saturday. But sporting wise not a normal Saturday. For due to the international break there's not that many club football games being played. Instead football focus has been on the World Cup qualifying games. The previous night England beat Malta in a match which until the final few minutes was so dull it almost cure my insomnia. Later Wales were facing Austria. But for that afternoon rugby entered my thoughts. The friendlies were now over.
The season had begun.
A quick check revealed that the closest game being played to me was in Penarth RFC who were playing Aberdare at 2:30 in the very precise WRU National League Division 2 East Central. I decided to leave where we're currently renting an hour earlier. A friend of the wife's was visiting.
"Oh you're seeing the Pens!"
I really had no idea what this woman was talking about. Still bid them my goodbyes and off I went.
It wasn't that far away. Parked nearby. Only when entering the ground I realised I'd forgotten to bring a book with me to read during the interval. Now that was irritating.
So paid my fee and walked along the path. On the pitch both teams were training.
What was clear was that the management of either side were blessed with never needing a microphone. In terms of Aberdare that meant pre watershed language. Now I've never understood this. I get angry management during a game and of course at the end. But the purpose of pre game anger management has passed me by.
The Penarth voices weren't pre watershed but just as loud.
"Latch onto him!" came the cry as one guy seemed to avoid his team mates.
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| The Snakes (Aberdare) in training |
The club has a stand if you want to go and watch the game there (personally I preferred to spectate using the traditional "leaning on a fence" method.
And the crowd. Well obviously not the attendance for a top tier Welsh Club in the Pro 14. However far more than the "five men and a dog" audience that this tier of rugby was described to me earlier this week. There were many men....and dogs.....and women....and children.
As an area Penarth has a reputation for being relatively affluent and although I think the reality is a little more complex than that it's certainly true that parts of it are well off. I'm saying all of this because if you're after symbolism I'll give you this.
They also have bistro rugby spectating areas.
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| Took this during half time. Whilst the match was on it was full |
All very sophisticated. Less so when the people had to hurriedly move to avoid the overkicked ball coming their way.
So the match began.
In the early stages the home side piled on the pressure.
"Go Pens!" came the shout. Ah I get it now. Pens is short for Penarth. Sometimes can be slow on the uptake.
I noticed a Penarthian player with a ponytail. He threw himself to every tackle, ran for every ball as if to say judge me on what I do not on my hairstyle. Another Penarth player sidelined until the second half was a stocky man with a large black beard. Imagine son of Santa playing before going for a stint as a Cardiff nightclub bouncer and an accurate picture would emerge. The Penarth team clearly consisted of men who were if nothing else prepared to battle for their team.
But the first try was Aberdare's. An interception roughly at the half way line, a race to the goal, a pass and a try. It was impressive it has to be said. Perhaps swearing at the players does help.
My attention was distracted for a moment from the game. When I turned back a young man was on the floor. The physio was attending to his leg. The man's face was in his hands. He was in pain. Eventually a stretcher had to be brought out. Thankfully later on he was driven by private car to the hospital (the fact it wasn't by ambulance gave you some cause for hope).
The above lasted for quite a while and it did make me think. For young men being in a rugby team gives them a bit of kudos with their peers, allows them to dream of a tomorrow playing for Cymru in a red shirt and probably makes it easier to impress women. The downside to that though is that probably sooner than most other men of their age they realise that they're not invincible.....that pain hurts.
The match restarts. Suddenly I feel a scrabbling in my leg. It turns out to be a black poodle. Regular readers will know my phobia to dogs. The owner picks the mutt up.
"Sorry" she says and then goes on to say that the poodle was after the legs of the man next to me. What am I supposed to say after that? Flattered?
During a scrum Penarth score with the resultant try. Soon afterwards a penalty is awarded to the Pens (I'm with the lingo now) and the half is finished at 10-8 to the home team.....which makes me think I've missed something along the way.....I'm blaming the dog.
So the break and I'm hungry. I buy a sausage roll not realising that it's spicy. This means that I need to get a coke from the bar. So queue dutifully. second half begins and whilst waiting Aberdare score.
Now I didn't see that try. But from the other tries Aberdare scored in the half it probably involved someone breaking through the Penarth defence and either running through or passing to a team mate to rack up the points. As the first half was close the second was just the snakes steamrollering of the opposition.
It finished 10-39. Though knew they was beaten did not realise until the announcer gave out the score that Penarth did not add a single point to their total in the second half. Aberdare were just that dominant. Not so much snakes on a train as snakes on a roll.
And this is what rugby should be. Local teams supported by local fans plus the odd stray English man wandering in.
Until the next time,
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