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Aberavon v Ebbw Vale MatchPack :
Editor's Viewpoint
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The Road to Recovery?
After what was, it cannot be denied, a pretty disappointing start to the campaign, it is with no small amount of relief that we can go into today's match on the back of a victory, and a degree of optimism that the Wizards' second home match of the season will see them perform rather better than they did during their first.
The reply, on being asked what went wrong after the Llanelli match, of one experienced Aberavon forward said it all. "We just didn't front up to them." As succinct and honest a self-assessment as one will ever hear, it sums it up nicely. Llanelli were no great shakes, but for some reason we didn't compete up front and had to be content with two tries, albeit very good tries, off the scraps of quality possession that came our way.
A week later saw a very different display at Cardiff Arms Park, with the disappointment coming from seeing a deserved victory snatched away in the dying moments of an encounter in which the Wizards, most reasonably observers would agree, being the better side for much of the afternoon.
And so, with an enforced weekend off thanks to Wales' exploits in the World Cup, that brought us to last Saturday, and Rodney Parade, where victory a year earlier had brought to an end a 22-year drought for the Wizards.
At 17-nil down at half-time, things didn't look too promising, but the fount of rugby knowledge that is Howard Evans suggested that it would be that old cliché, 'a game of two halves'. Spot on, as usual, Howard. A very different second half followed, and a first league victory for coaches Simon King and Nicky Lloyd was the very welcome outcome.
In the middle of all this league activity, of course, was the small matter of a visit to Dinas Powys, a former club of one Darren 'Scarf' Ryan, who this season celebrate 125 years of existence. A warm welcome was received at their idyllic but sharply sloping ground, and the Wizards went on to set a new club record with a 110-nil win that, even accounting for the gulf between the two clubs (Dinas play in National League Five South East). While the result was to be expected, the margin of victory can only have served to boost confidence as the tries came thick and fast.
So, it is an upward trend that the Wizards will be seeking to maintain as they play host to Ebbw Vale today. The Steelmen, for their part, will no doubt want to lay the ghost of their last visit here on a cold January afternoon, when their hitherto high-flying title bid got derailed by an unexpectedly convincing and spectacular Aberavon performance, still considered by many to be the Wizards' best of 2006-07. It was a far cry from the hard-fought clash at Eugene Cross Park earlier in the season, when a last-gasp Sam Mills penalty snatched an Ebbw Vale victory from the jaw of defeat.
So, enjoy today's game and, may we suggest, stay on and watch televised coverage of the Wales-Fiji clash in the clubhouse afterwards. As a half-forgotten TV advertising campaign from long ago used to say, 'you know it makes sense'.
Paul Williams
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