News

Good morning all! 👍
It’s match report time! 🏉

🏉THE 1STS
I’m going to dive into the 1sts a bit more today because I personally think what they are doing at the mo is mightily impressive.
We lost a few big hitters and a big fella in the summer, the big fella is back thou now which is always nice! Welcome back to the family boyo 
Back to the rest of the crazy gang and they are 100% the biggest bunch is Mismatched loons I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet in my life, They can be forgiven for having a bit of a hangover from last season with the 1st few performances being a bit sporadic and suffering our 1st league defeat in over a year, the question was,  
How are the lads going to react!
Well we are 7 games into the season and we are sitting third with a game in hand on the leaders! 
Our latest win on the weekend against a good Tredegar Ironsides side turned a few hairs grey towards the end but I also think sums up the season so far!
Playing well and then not so much but, these boys have been a tight unit for a few years now and gone through the highs and lows and using that experience more often than not they come off the pitch after 80 minutes winners!! 
Keep it going boys especially into this weekend as they go up against 2nd place Monmouth!
I’ve been practicing my inspirational speeches for Saturday! 
“Boys, don’t lose” 
This coaching shizzle is easy!! 

🏉THE YOUTH
Disappointing result yesterday lads but not necessarily a disappointing performance.  It was a cruel way to lose!
Far more positives than negatives.
With so many boys (8) unavailable yesterday I thought you done yourselves proud.
Heads up lads and we move on together. 
Machen 18-20 Bargoed 
Scorers.
Tries - Dylan, Oli, Keith
Pen - Aaron
Man of the Match - Keith
Dick of the Day - Lewis 

🏉Under 14’s

Big thanks to Clare for sorting out today's fixture vs Mountain Ash at the last minute.

Two evenly matched sides with neither giving an inch in defence. Some good stuff and plenty to work on and it's games like today where the lads gain the most. Although we only played 20 minutes each way a 12-12 draw was probably a true reflection of how well matched both sides were. Pleasing was the better defence and not giving away soft tries. At least the lower score has made our match reporter's (Alun Havard) job a much easier task this week. No pressure Al.

Try scorers were Josh Hart and Leo Quigley, and Declan Nott 

🏉Under 10’s

Machen Under 10s put in a brave performance away to Newport High School Old Boys and can feel like their 17-5 defeat didn’t fully reflect the effort all the players put in and the team’s progress that was evident for large periods of the match.

NHSOB demonstrated some confident tackling, powerful running and quick thinking at the breakdown which allowed them to score a number of excellent tries, particularly in the middle third of the match.

However, the game had been a much closer contest prior to that. Pacy running and quick footwork allowed Riley and Charlie to score early tries for Machen during an opening ten minutes in which the game remained a close contest.

NHSOB stretched their lead in the middle third but Machen were still
able to win some turnovers and stretch the Old Boys defence on a few occasions with Will, Jacob, Archie and Rhys looking to carry the ball forward when the opportunity arose. Despite being on the back foot for a lot of that period, it wasn’t one way traffic and Machen’s third try came when Patrick scored in the corner with a neat finish.

By the final third, NHSOB had put the win beyond doubt thanks to several good tries off the back of some excellent rucking and well-won turnover ball. However, Machen’s determination not to let their heads go down made the last ten minutes a much closer contest with only two tries separating the teams during that section of the game. Charlie scored twice more for Machen during that period to cap a man of the match performance in which he made several try-saving, ‘body-on-the-line’ tackles.

All in all it was a deserved win for NHSOB but Machen battled until the end and showed they are team heading in the right direction. Well done to all the players and coaches.