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Honestly I would say go grab a cup-o-tea but it's more like a 3 course meal!!
I'll keep my report of the seniors cup game short and sweet,

Machen v Llanrumney 
With a 1st and 2nds mixed side playing 
On Saturday we almost paid the price for not showing up in the game! We managed to cross the line on the W train but much like last weekend where a slow start cost us we got to be on the ball from the 1st whistle!! 
Not the most pleasurable game to watch but if you play crap and still win you gotta take that silver lining!! 
Now enough from me and on to the match reports from the rest of the weekend!

THE YOUTH

The hard work the Youth boys have put in during the past couple of months paid off on Saturday.
They've been on the road for all 4 of their games so far this season but on Saturday they returned from Bridgend Athletic with a morale boosting 22-7 victory to take into their league campaign this coming Saturday.
Their previous three games have all been against bigger and more experienced youth sides within the Dragons region. This has obviously helped them in their preparation as all 20 players put a great shift in on Saturday against a side who were equally experienced at Youth level.
Try scorers were Aaron Billingham, Daniel Jervis, Ieuan Williams and Oliver Kincaid. Aaron Billingham kicking a conversion.

This coming Saturday all attention turns to their first league game at Blackwood in a Dragons C fixture.
All support will be appreciated.

UNDER 9's

As this was the U’9s first competitive match of the 2017/18 season nerves were high, gone are the tags this season the boys are tackling. Obviously, there were lots of worries, ‘It’s going to hurt’, ‘ What if something breaks?’ along with lots of tears and biting of fingernails. Once the coaches had told the parents to pull themselves together, the boys could concentrate on the days games.
We were in Bedlinog for a round-robin event with the home team and Taffs Well. From the first whistle, it was clear that any worries or concerns that the parents had before kick-off was long forgotten as the hard work that Chris and Alun have put into the preseason training program started to pay dividends. 
First up was Bedlinog it was a close game with some excellent first-half tries from Henry, Cam , Oscar, Jack, Coby and Joe. At halftime, the boys were up 6-5. The second half proved to be much tighter but still yielded some excellent tackling and passing manoeuvres. Eventually running out winners 11-10 thanks to tries from Callum, Cameron, Oscar and a brace from Joe.
Taff Well was the second game for the boys and although they had only managed to bring 6 players to our 12, the players they brought were more than up to the challenge. 
The very physical Taffs Well team got a start on Machen with two early tries without reply eventually going in at halftime leading 5-3 our tries coming from Harry, Jack and Joe. At the start of the second half, we repaid Taffs Well with two quick tries of our own without reply bringing the game level at 5 apiece. What followed was a match between two evenly matched sides with the final score being 8-8.
That should have been the end of proceedings but with Taffs Well having to leave early Bedlinog had an extra half of rugby to play with no opposition. Up stepped our boys and played some of the best rugby of the afternoon, crossing the line 5 times versus twice for Bedlinog.
All in all, it was a fantastic morning of rugby that hopefully will be a firm foundation for the season to come.
Next week’s game is a local derby away at Bedwas, hopefully, we will see more of the same.

UNDER 14's

Match reports from Machen U14s new reporter Eddie Invermoore-Davies (EID)

Dowlais v Machen

The good work in the first two games paid dividends as the Under 14s took to the road for the first time this season against Dowlais (Merthyr) on Sunday 17/09, where they ran out impressive 5-48 winners. This time they were able to combine another solid up-front performance with an ability to spin the ball out wide in better conditions, allowing the backs to show their skills - Logan in particular profiting with a handful of tries (see Coaches match report due to prior engagement of match reporter EID).

Excellent 5 - 48 win today and a half decent performance to go with it. A few pleasing things to note were:

1. Backs moved the ball wide with Tom and James showing good hands to utilise the pace we have out wide.

2. When we were switched on we scrummaged well and more often than not pushed Dowlais back at a rate of knots.

3. The introduction of Ronnie into our u14s family and he produced some barnstorming runs and showed that even props can sidestep.

4. Once again, excellent discipline especially towards the end when Dowlais tried to take the law into their own hands and took a few cheap shots.

Big thumbs up to Ieuan who played for Dowlais and was an absolute nuisance at the breakdown. Well done Irish.

Gethyn Cannon also had a big game and thankfully is none the worse after his knock at the end of the game, albeit he'll be sore tomorrow.

Scorers were Logan George with x5 who capitalised on the ball being spread wide and showed good pace to beat the defence. Josh Hart with another hat trick who terrorised Dowlais at will. Declan Nott slotting 4 conversions.

WELL DONE LADS

No man of the match this week as we were unfortunately unable to sample the delights of Dowlais food due to refurbishment of their club house and many of the lads had subsequently gone

Machen Under 14s next match is away against the newly merged St Julians / Monmouth (at Monmouth).