News

So it’s seems at some point Everyone will be sat queuing in the nightmare that is the Cedar Tree roundabout so instead of writing and tagging the CCBC in posts they will ignore have a read of the weekend match reports instead! 

🏉1STS 

Came up against a tough Taffs Well in the cup, the game was evenly matched through the 80 with the lead going back forth but Taffs Well Came out on top in the end 28-24

Back to league business this Saturday 

🏉2NDS

Travelled down to Bedwas where the they battled to a 14-14 Full Time score line, A special shout out to Curley who put back on the Machen jersey and took to the pitch and after said probably for the 10th time NEVER AGAIN!!!!! 

🏉YOUTH 

Great performance from the  boys against a Croesyceiliog side that most think will win the league.

Pushed them all the way and if there was another 5 mins I'm convinced we would've beaten them.   A slight lapse of concentration a couple of times proved costly.

So many positives though.   They tried to bully us but you all stood toe to toe.  Very proud of you all boys.  I'm sure the crowd were too.

Big thanks to all the supporters yesterday,  was good to see so many there, especially Helen Antonelli and Pat.

Thanks too to Martin Evans for sponsoring the after match awards.

Machen 24 - 31 Croesyceiliog 

SCORERS - 

Tries - Aaron, Sam, Dylan x2

Cons - Aaron x2

Man of the Match - Aaron

Dick of the Day - Joe

8.5/10

🏉UNDER 13's

Machen 55, Dowlais 19.

With only 16 players available today due to 7 being unavailable, Machen showed how much strength in depth they have with players playing in unaccustomed positions.

Things were not looking good pre-match when we viewed the size of the Dowlais players, with one of their boys being over 17 stone in weight (that's official), even most of the dads didn't fancy their chances in tackling him!!!

But size does not always matter !!!

As, we outplayed them with our pace.

A great team performance today, all us coaches, mums, dads and grandparents were very proud of you all.

Well done to the following boys on their awards 

Yousif - Man of the match

Morgan - 100% award

And a final mention to Toby who stood in as goal kicker and kicked  5 out of his 7 attempts

🏉UNDER 12’s

Well done boys, 1st game and 1st win of the season, 40-20 against Blaenafon Forgeside, tries by Harvey Picton 3, Sam Bryan, James Perry and Freddie Roach, and 5 conversations from the reliable boot of Ben Williams. We welcomed back Ashton Fish to the side today after a years break, and he put in a big performance, along with a strong running performance in the centre by Iwan James and Harvey, who were given some decent ball to work with from Ben at outside half, with Freddie showing his versatility at Scrum half and Centre, and Sion Harries filling in brilliantly at Scrum Half too. James Perry, George Vaughan, Archie Gidden and Lucas Russell all showed up well in the forwards, backed up by Ben Owen, Ollie Phipps and Lewi Hartland. 

Max Watkins put in some superb tackles on their biggest player, and Lewis Willetts and Lucas Phillips had a few outstanding runs out wide, with Lewis giving a brilliant assist for Freddie’s try. Big mention to Sam Bryan who as well as taking a couple against the head at the Scrum, made some powerful runs in the loose, and showed a turn of pace to cross for a try, for this performance Sam is today’s man of the match.

🏉UNDER 8’s

A fantastic effort from the under 8’s against a very good Blackwood side.

We played our best rugby of the season with tries and tags being shared across the team,the coaches couldn’t of asked for more in effort and willingness to work hard for each other, the result went against us but we will take more from this game in progression and skill levels than we have in previous games.

The game was all square going into the final third but Blackwood kept pulled away towards the end earning them a home 19-13 victory, the boys run themselves into the ground and struggled with energy in the final third on a much bigger pitch than they are used to.

Man of the match could of gone to a number of players as always but a magical try by Sonnie Boe Sargent earned him the trophy.

Thanks to all the parents for their continued support

🏉UNDER 9’s

Blackwood 5 – 4 Machen

Tries: Callum 2, Joe 1, Coby 1

Our Under 9’s took a trip to Blackwood on Sunday to face a team that we have yet to beat in all the times we have played them. It was very much a game of three halves, literally.

1st Half.

Right from the whistle it was clear that the Machen boys may have been on the pitch their minds were stuck in traffic on route, after having an extra 10 minutes extra in bed. Blackwood however, had clearly been up for hours and were raring to go. They used their pace and quick hands to pile the pressure on Machen, who just couldn’t get going allowing themselves to fall behind 4-0 by the time the first half was over.

2nd Half.

With the sides now back on the pitch the spectators were expecting more of the same. It certainly looked that way as Blackwood almost scored an early try. One by one something changed in the boys as they all started to wake up. Blackwood kept piling on the pressure through this half but could not find a way through. Machen finally started to play rugby, stringing passes together, making tackles and moving forward towards the try line. The Blackwood defence held up not allowing Machen to score although they came close on many occasions.

3rd Half.

Now fully awake and switched on, the Machen boys started to put more pressure on Blackwood and the cracks started to appear. Machen were able to run in 4 tries without Blackwood being able to reply. The home sides coach was getting very frustrated with his side and decided to bring on fresh legs for a last-ditch effort to put the game to rest. In the final 2 minutes of the game, Blackwood threw everything at Machen but the visitors defence held up. Making tackle after tackle and pushing the home side backwards. A number of try saving tackles were made as the boys gave all they could to stop the onslaught, in scenes reminiscent of senior internationals of recent years.

Although they lost the game 5-4 , the boys played some great rugby and if it wasn’t for the work they all put In in defence the score line would have been a lot worse. If the boys are to take anything from this game it’s that they need to get out of bed 10 minutes earlier 😉