Aberavon vs Rotherham in the B&I cup

Posted on Oct 12, 2012

Aberavon take a break from the Principality Premiership for the next fortnight as they enter the British & Irish Cup. The Wizards open their campaign by welcoming RFU Championship side Rotherham Titans to the Talbot Athletic Ground this coming Saturday, kick off 2:30pm.

Rotherham are currently sixth in the RFU Championship having won three, losing two, and drawing one of their games this season.

The Titans opened their Championship campaign with a 20 – 26 loss at London Scottish. Wing Peter Homan and replacement hooker Ted Stagg scored tries, while outside half James McKinney converted both and kicked a couple of penalties. The hosts scored one try and seven penalties.

The opening day defeat was followed by a 38 – 38 draw at home to Bedford Blues. The home side scored four tries through full back Mike Whitehead, number 8 Alex Rieder, centre Lee Blackett, as well as a penalty try. McKinney converted three of the tries and also kicked four penalties for a personal tally of 18 points. The Blues also scored four tries.

Rotherham’s first win of the season came with a 27 – 16 win at Nottingham. Outside half McKinney scored 17 points this time with five penalties and one conversion. Wing Eamonn Sheridan scored a try and the Titans were also awarded a penalty try. Nottingham scored one try in reply.

The Titan’s followed up their win at Nottingham with a high scoring 54 – 31 home win over Jersey. The South Yorkshire outfit scored six tries as wing Sheridan, replacement flanker Carl Kirwan, centre Pale Nonu – brother of New Zealand All Black Ma’a Nonu, flanker Rieder, replacement wing Mike Doneghan, and centre Garry Law all touched down. Law converted all six tries and added four penalties for a 29 point haul. The Channel Islands side scored four tries.

At the end of September Rotherham went down 3 – 15 away to Plymouth Albion – one of the other sides the Wizards will be facing in this season’s British & Irish Cup. Outside half Law kicked a sole penalty for the Titans, whilst the home side scored two tries, a penalty and a conversion.

Last weekend, at home to Bristol, the Titans ran out 23 – 16 winners. Flanker Rieder scored a try for Rotherham, who also had a penalty try. Law, playing full-back, converted both and also kicked three penalties.

Looking back in time at previous Wizards games played this weekend:

Ten years ago this weekend Aberavon won 38 – 21 at Narberth in a Division One league game. The Wizards dominated the first half as they put three scores between the sides and entered the interval 23 – 8 up. However, the Otters hit back in the second half to come back to within five points of the visitors before Aberavon sealed the game with two tries in the last six minutes of play. The Wizards try scorers that day were David Hawkins, Matthew Back, Dafydd Owen & Gareth Newman. Jamie Davies kicked three conversions and four penalties.

Five years ago this weekend Aberavon beat Pontypridd 23 – 12 at the Talbot Athletic Ground in the Premiership. Trailing Ponty 12 – 3 at the interval, a stunning second-half display saw the Wizards outscore their visitors 20 – 0 in the second half. A 17 year old Ospreys Academy centre by the name of Ashley Beck made his debut for the Wizards that day when he came on for John Leyshon in the 53rd minute, and made a big impact. Aberavon’s points came via tries by Marc Bennett and Richard Carter, with Beck having a big hand in Carter’s try. Jamie Davies converted both and added three penalties.

The referee for Saturday’s game is Charles Samson (SRU), aided by touch judges Hugh Watkins (WRU) and Terry Thomas (WRU).

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Cross Keys to face Munster ‘A’ in British & Irish Cup final

Posted on Apr 9, 2012

Former Wales international Mark Ring has steered Cross Keys into the final of the British & Irish Cup where they will meet Munster ‘A’ on April 27-28 (tbc).

Keys became the first Welsh side to make it through to the final of competition after a 20-16 win over Cornish Pirates at Pandy Park.

It kept Keys’ bid for an extraordinary treble – they are contenders for the Principality Premiership title and face Ebbw Vale in the semi-finals of the Swalec Cup on Saturday – on track.

In what was billed as the club’s most important game in its 127-year history, Cross Keys scored two tries through right-wing Kristian Baller, both converted by fly-half Steffan Jones who was also successful with two penalty attempts. A penalty try and 11 points from the boot of Rob Cook accounted for Pirates’ points.

Meanwhile, Munster are now 80 minutes away from atoning for their defeat in the 2010 final after seeing off Leinster in a thrilling extra-time semi-final win in front of nearly 5,000 fans at Donnybrook.

Scott Deasy struck three first half penalties to give Munster a 9-6 interval lead before the home side scored 14 answered points to take command of the tie.

But Munster struck back with a brace from Luke O’Dea and one for Barry O’Mahony to regain the lead. Deasy missed an added time penalty but then landed his seventh successful kick in extra time before adding the conversion to Dave Kilcoyne’s try to seal the outcome 36 points to 29.

The British & Irish Cup final, Munster ‘A’ vs Cross Keys, Friday April 27-28. TBC

Cross Keys flying the flag for Wales in B&I cup

Posted on Apr 3, 2012

Three of the four home nations are represented in this year’s British & Irish Cup semi-finals, with competition newcomers Cross Keys flying the flag for Wales against English outfit Cornish Pirates (pictured), while Leinster and Munster kick off the weekend with an all-Irish tie at the RDS.

Friday evening’s semi-final sees the ‘A’ sides of Irish provinces clash for only the sixth time at this level of rugby. Munster marginally have the better head-to-head record over the last decade by three wins to two, including victory in the last meeting: 19-7 at Donnybrook on September 12, 2010.

Munster A have only been beaten once in seven outings this season, their only defeat coming against Cornish Pirates, 10-6 on November 11, 2011.

Leinster are bidding for a first-ever appearance in the final having progressed to this stage with a comprehensive 32-0 home win against Pontypridd in the quarter-finals.

A second final appearance in three years awaits Pirates if they can get past Cross Keys in Saturday’s semi-final at Pandy Park. Pirates are the only team in the line-up to have won all four of their pool matches, securing their path to the semi-finals with a win over fellow Championship contenders Nottingham.

But Cross Keys have impressed in their first season, finishing top of Pool 2 just one point ahead of Munster ‘A’ before victory against Welsh Premiership rivals Llanelli saw them through to the last four.

Pirates go into the fixture having won back-to-back games against Rotherham in the Championship play-offs, while Cross Keys have lost two of their last three games in the Welsh Premiership to sit fifth in the table.

British & Irish Cup semi-finals

• Leinster ‘A’ v Munster ‘A’, Friday April 6, KO 1800
• Cross Keys v Cornish Pirates, Saturday April 7, KO 1500

British & Irish Cup Final, April 28

The winner of Semi-final 1 will host the winner of Semi-final 2, meaning that for the first time in the competition’s history, an Irish team will stage the British & Irish Cup final

Wales guaranteed a B&I semi finalist

Posted on Jan 17, 2012

Following the conclusion of the pool stages, the British & Irish Cup 2011-12 quarter finals have been confirmed.

With Cross Keys at home to Llanelli, Wales are guaranteed at least one semi-final berth, and with Pontypridd travelling to Dublin to play the in-form Leinster A, a second semi-final slot is a possibility. Likewise, Ireland have a guarantee with Ulster at home to Munster A. English Championship sides Cornish Pirates, the 2010 winners and Nottingham complete the quarter-final line-up with a tasty encounter at The Mennaye.

The English quarter finalists are two of only four clubs – along with Leinster A and Ulster – who recorded four straight wins in the pool stages.

The Green & Whites finished Pool 6 a single point behind the Northern Irish men, who will take home advantage in their crunch game against Munster A in the New Year.

Leinster A are the third Irish side to push through to the quarter finals and will host Welsh Principality Premiership outfit Pontypridd, who finished top of their group with wins over Leeds Carnegie and Swansea.

In the fourth quarter final Llanelli travel to Cross Keys, the home side securing their path to the knock-out stages in their debut year in the competition.

2011-12 British & Irish Cup Quarter-finals

• Cornish Pirates vs. Nottingham Rugby
• Ulster vs. Munster A
• Leinster A vs. Pontypridd
• Cross Keys vs. Llanelli

All matches to be played w/e 20th January
Quarter-final qualification

The British & Irish Cup Quarter Final Draw is determined as follows:

5.2.2 The 6 Pool winners shall be ranked 1-6 and the runners up shall then be ranked 7-12, in each case based on their playing record in the Pool Stages using 5.2.1 (a)-(j). Those teams ranked 1-8 shall proceed to the quarter final.

5.3.3 The draw for the quarter-final Matches shall be made from the teams ranked 1-8 as set out in Regulation 5.2.2. Those teams ranked 1-4 in accordance with 5.2.2 will have the home advantage. The draw will be organised by the Committee and will ensure that there are no fixtures that replicate the pool matches.

Cross Keys look to maintain winning streak in British & Irish Cup

Posted on Dec 16, 2011

Cross Keys are looking to maintain their unbeaten record in their first British & Irish Cup  campaign.

The Gwent club travel to Cornwall to play the Cornish Pirates and backs coach, Mark Ring, is looking forward to the challenge.
“It’s definitely going to be an intense game, the season is not even halfway through and we’ve got to make changes," he said. "While we made a lot of changes early on against Bridgend, we lost our stride a little but it’s all about finding the right balance.

“We’re going there to win, we’re not going there to roll over, we want to keep our run going. We’re trusting our squad, we feel we have a much stronger squad than we did have last year. The whole back row will change for Saturday but the guys coming in are real quality, Cae Trayhern, Marc Popham, Rhys Williams, are all quality players.
“Our star player the past three or four weeks has been hooker Gavin Price, but Jamie Sollis now is coming in as his young understudy if you like but it’s coming up to a crucial time for him now where he’s playing for a place in the Wales U20 squad in the Six Nations so he needs to play, so it’s an opportunity for Jamie to show what he can do against quality opposition.

“We’ve made 11 changes, one positional change but we’ve got every faith in the guys stepping in because every single one of them can do a quality job in their position, but the hardest thing is making so many changes all at once.”

Cross Keys have already qualified for the quarter finals but every point counts in the British & Irish Cup.

“We’ve won the pool, so it’s crucial that we now play to get a home draw in the quarter finals, if we took it too lightly we could concede quite a few points, lose the game and end up with points difference that wouldn’t give us that home advantage.

“It’s a far more intense situation than we’ve been used to week in week out. This is our first year in the British and Irish Cup and we’ve exceeded expectations, the game against Moseley gave us confidence and it was the Ayr game that was the turning point for us, that was a phenomenal game.

“There’s still a long way to go for Cross Keys in terms of potential but we couldn’t have asked for a better start to our first British & Irish Cup campaign. We still have a lot of tricks up our sleeve to plot our way round the game on Saturday as well as standing up to them physically but the team is growing in confidence with every game.”

Elsewhere, Aberavon face Esher at home, Llanelli travel to play Bedford Blues, Swansea face Doncaster away, whilst Neath play Plymouth Albion at The Gnoll and Pontypridd host Leeds Carnegie at Sardis Road which will be broadcast live on S4C.