Captain's Blog #3

After the washout of the Newport game, we ended up gathering for a training session with conditioning coach Mark “Curly” Powell. There were plenty of volunteers to do some mopping up around the ground instead, but a gruelling fitness session it was to be!

Our build up to the clash against Neath was spot on, right up to the pre-match warm up when I could sense that all the boys were very much up for it on the day. We’d had some banter with our former player Duck (Lee Evans) on Facebook with regard to selection of the back row. I was confident we’d come out on top in that department with Wayne O’Connor being an out and out openside. Duck promised that the loser would get in the first round after the game… he never did!

In Lee Evans and Dafydd Lockyer, we had lost two top players to Neath, and it would be difficult to fill their boots. Along have come Adam Thomas and Rhys Lloyd, two ‘Bwl boys who have capably stepped in, done the business, and more, and no doubt had the better of their opponents on the day.

The Neath game was poignant in bringing back memories of Snid, and I really felt for his cousin Stuart Williams more than anybody during the minute’s silence before kick off. Emotions were running high, and the whole squad was really up for the game. It was a highly physical, and a close fought encounter. When the final whistle eventually blew, the “W” was ours, and the post match talk was of keeping up the same intensity leading up to the next game against Ebbw Vale.

Unfortunately, that was not the case. The intensity we showed in training during the week didn’t materialise on the day of the game. When warming up before kick off I can tell if the “feeling” is there, but it was missing at Ebbw on Saturday. It was a frustrating experience as on our day we are more than capable of beating anyone in the league – however at times like this it is the “top two inches” that count for so much, and it is down to individual players to mentally focus on the day.

We were lucky to get back from Ebbw Vale at all, as a spot drugs test was carried out after the game. Our second row Ryan Savage was randomly selected, but he held up the bus for nearly two hours just waiting to produce a sample… was he taking the p**s or what?!

Against Ebbw our first phase possession was not as it should have been, and the video sessions this week with Chief will expose all the problems – the standards that he sets are of the highest order. It will be a case of putting things right in training, leading up to arguably our biggest home game of the season against age old rivals Cardiff.

We really need to hear the chants of “Ponty Ponty” resounding big time around Sardis on Saturday, if only to show that rugby in the Valleys is alive and kicking. We will do our utmost to prove the same on the field, with a winning performance worthy of Pontypridd RFC.

Nathan Strong - 22nd September 2008