Gwent rugby reports

In fact Blackwood started brightly and for the first 20 minutes the Castle Men found it hard to get out of their own half.

Prompted by the lively Stewart Volkes, and skipper-Gavin Rees, the pressure told with an early penalty by Greg Jones.

Good interplay between backs and forwards allowed Shaun Emery to chip through, and Owen Williams beat the defence to touch down. Jones added the conversion.

Instead of playing the game in the opposition half, Wood then tried running the ball from everywhere and Caerphilly made the most of their mistakes.

Rhys Edwards narrowed the gap with a penalty for obstruction.

The game was became bogged down with a series of knock-ons and penalties and the slower pace suited Caerphilly.

Their forwards worked well to engineer a try for captain John Griffiths. Dean Watkins converted to tie the scores up at 10-10 at half time.

With Gavin Rees having to leave the field, Blackwood were left without a regular scrum half and it disjointed them completely.

A sin binning didn't help and Caerphilly laid seige to the line. A full quarter of an hour and over ten scrums on the line ensued, and as the frustration grew they finally broke through with a Chris Thomas try.

The home sides backs tried to run all the scraps of possession they were getting, but Caer always loooked in control.

Finally, Dean Watkins tied the game up with a further penalty. A final score of 10-18 on a disappointing afternoon for the home side.

It's is better to win ugly than lose pretty, and that's what Cwmbran did at Blaina, triumphing 10-3.

The side displayed admirable courage and commitment against a determined Blaina team and came away with the spoils courtesy of a well crafted try by Chris Wannell, created by a grubber kick from Carl Moore.

The match was played in good spirit by two extremely committed teams and defences were on top for the majority of the game. Thus free flowing rugby was at a premium.

Kyle Scrivens, Cwmbran's young fullback, was outstanding in both attack and defence, dealing confidently with everything thrown at him, and young winger Rosser enjoyed an accomplished first team debut. Liam Cleary also looked dangerous every time he touched the ball.

The travelling Cwmbran faithful were delighted with the win but it could have been far more comprehensive if a slightly more expansive game had been played.

TREDEGAR were out-muscled at Ystrad Rhondda, the hosts' pack meaning the visitors got nothing for a spirited effort.

The former Division One team showed their intent imediately, playing the percentage game and kicking for position, pinning Tredegar back time and time again.

With first half tries from full back Phillips and flanker Hughes adding to Dylan Jones' two conversions &single penaltygoal, Ystrad looked likely to record another big score to keep their unbeaten record.

But the Tredegar pack started to exert their authority and dominated most phases of play with Stuart Jarman providing the attacking thrust from the base of the scrum but all too often lacked the support for Tredegar to take advantage of the hard yards gained.

Paul Douglas was immense in the front row while Ryan Williams and John Osborne had the better of their opponents.

With the Tredegar pack dominating, two Darryl Carter penalties were followed by Craig Lewis fielding a high ball to release Dan Davies with a slick reverse pass to send the speedster over with Tredegar trailing by just six points at the interval.

A Carter penalty saw Tredegar reduce the deficit and they were unlucky not to score shortly after the restart.

With Ystrad unable tothwart the Tredegar forward effort their experienced back line resorted to aggressive tactics.

Poor tactics, wrong options and poor decisions by thevisitors allowed the home side to dictate matters and with three players yellow carded by the ref, Tredegar's effort could not turn the tide and after a further two tries the final score was 33-14.

While Tony Edwards is fashioning a more than usefull forward unit, Tredegar's back play needs serious attention if Tredegar are to compete for honours at the end of the season. Next Saturday Tredegar are away to Dunvant in a friendly.

Rogerstone RFC started the season well with a 67-3 league win at Hartridge Seconds.

Last Saturday Rogerstone firsts and seconds travelled to St Peters and both teams returned with victories, the first team winning 25-11 and the seconds winning 47-25.

There have been some outstanding performances already this year from forwards Owen Reynolds , Paul Evans and converted flanker Noel Wernerwith Ryan Langley, Carl Morris and Tyrone Powell shining behind the scrum.

The club will play their first home game of the season this Saturday at Cefn Wood.

The club are also running in conjunction with Newport Fugitives tag rugby for six to eight-year-olds every Sunday at 10.30am. All welcome.

Trinant, looking for their first win of the season, entertained Chepstow.

The early encounters belonged to the visitors, but Trinant defended well and on the 10 minute mark scored a good try through flanker Lee Jones, who showed exceptional strength to brush offthree would-be tacklers to score in the corner.

Trinant continued to pile on the pressure and kicked three penalties, two by centre Kevin Rees and one by full-back Ryan Jones, to lead19-0. Locks, Adam Rogers and Chris Finch were both having fine games, Rogers excelling at the lineout and Finch impressing with his ball carrying into the opposition half.

However on half time a rare Chepstow surge into the Trinant 22 resulted in a try to make the half-time score 19-7.

Chepstow again had the early pressure and reduced the arrears with a penalty which set panic through the Trinant ranks, who added to their worries when they lost prop Craig Maddock to the sin bin. Trinant under the cosh needed to show character and this they did with some excellent tackling from full back Ryan Jones and solid work at the back of the scrum fromNo.8 Paul Lloyd.

Back to full strength after the sin binning, Trinant scored a very good try after a fine 40-yard break by Ryan Jones who fed lock Finch who drew the final cover to feed young wing Chris Meyrick, who had the simple task of putting the ball down.

Trinant just failed to get the bonus point after centre Darren Smith charged akick down,but then knocked the ball forward over the try line.

Trinant with a good mix of young and more senior players are starting to grow in confidence which bodes well for the future. Young wing Ryan Price continues to improve in only hissecond game of rugby.

The man of the match award went to Adam Rogers with a good all round performance, but No.8, Paul Lloyd and full back, Ryan Jones must have ran him close.

Newbridge United beat New Tredegar seconds 29-24 in the Cyrus Davies Cup.

It was United's first Cup game for five years as the team has reformed recently. Karl Gardner was man of the match after an excellent performance in second row, closely followed by Jamie Walker who scored two fine tries.

Next game in the Gwent Counties League Division Two is against Cwmcarn United at home on October 13. Training takes place every Wednesday on the Welfare Ground of Newbridge RFC 7pm. New players welcome.

Llanhilleth welcomed Ynysddu to the Park with both sides looking for their first league win after two narrow defeats.

Llanhilleth made an encouraging start and took a three point lead on 10 minutes through a penalty by outside half Dean Thomas.

Llan continued to press and from an attacking lineout secured good off the top ball by second row Gary Jones which led to the ball being moved across the backs for left wing Alex Davies to cross out wide to make it 8-0 after 15 minutes.

On 25 minutes Ynysddu got back into the game through their openside flanker, who broke through Llan's midfield to cross under the posts converted by their fly half.

The remainder of the half and much of the second saw the defences well on top, and late on Llan were down to thirteen men through injuries and a yellow card.

In injury time Llan crossed from the halfway line first from centre Luke Yates then scrum half Paul Rogers who fed captain and centre Chris Evans to race under the posts converted by D.Thomas for a hard-fought 15-7 victory.

All the Llan players performed admirably but special mentions go to hooker Kieran Davies, who played much of the game at prop, second row Gary Jones, who controlled the lineout and was aggressive in both attack and defence, and full back Ross Mogford, who never flinched as the last line on defence and was assured with ball in hand and with the boot.

Llan now have a break from league rugby until mid-October to get the walking wounded back and look to build on this confidence-boosting result.

Machen travelled up the valley and lost a disappointing game 20-10 at Tredegar Ironsides.

After dominating and playing in the opposition's half for large periods of the game, Machen only really started to find their cutting edge when they were playing catch up. There were some good individual performances especially from young J Davies playing his first senior game at centre.

Machen's scorers were hooker Spencer Burris and left wing Lloyd Williams.

Machen seconds were away to Pill Harriers, who they defeated 41-19.

Machen Youth welcomed Merthyr Youth to the Welfare and started the game with a number of players missing through injury so had to play with passive scrums throughout. In a very entertaining game Merthyr eventually won 24-15.

Pontypool Utd returned to league action after a two-week break and made eight changes from the previous defeat at Cwmbran with one debutant - hooker Dan Horseman.

In the first contact of the game outside half Morgan West sustained an injury which required a trip to Nevill Hall Hospital resulting in Robert Tovey coming onto the field for his first game for the club as the new outside half.

Senghenydd were out of the traps first, kicking three penalties before Utd troubled the scores with a penalty of their own after the visitors were caught offside and Tovey slotted the kick.

After this point it appeared that Tovey might be involved in a man of the match display when he sold a dummy to scamper in for a try which he then converted to put Utd 10-9 up but the visitors had the last laugh as they kicked another penalty to turn around infront by 12-10.

As the second half started Utd upped the tempo and Tovey scored a great try as he chipped over Senghenydd's flat defensive line and gathered to score under the posts before he added the extras.

Five minutes later Tovey added another penalty to put Utd up 17-12 and at this point it was the Tovey show as he had bagged all Utd's points and was asured of the man of the match award.

Half way through the half it was the turn of a new scorer as Utd were awarded an indirect kick on the half way line, quickly taken by Mark Parry the ball flew through six or seven pairs of hands before Parry was able to cross near the posts and Tovey added the extras.

The game now entered the final quarter and Utd's fitness was now starting to tell as Senghenydd found it impossible to get out of their own half,the next try came from a lineout which was caught and a drive from the pack resulted in replacement lock Ryan Thomas scoring and for the first time Tovey failed to add the extras.

The last try came straight off the training field as wing Dan Haymond came back at an angle, running the outside half channel to score under the posts and Tovey kicked the conversion to take his personal tally to 24 points on an afternoon he will remember for quite some time.

Rhigos have withdrawn from the cup which means unless Utd arrange some friendlies their next game is at Brynmawr on October 13.

After opening the season with two narrow defeats, Abercarn travelled to Bishop's Field the home of Llandaff RFC, a team on their fixture list many years ago.

The first 15 minutes of play was mainly in the home half of the field with Abercarn pressurising their opponents before opening the scoring with an unconverted try by flanker Rhys Peebles after a quickly taken free kick.

Llandaff seemed to settle down after the score, putting their visitors on the defensive until drawing level with an unconverted try themselves. The remainder of the first half saw play go from end to end of the field with both defences snuffing out any further scores.

The second half saw Abercarn increase their lead within minutes of the kick-off when number eight Gareth Peebles broke from a scrum near the Llandaff line and passed quickly to scrum half Robert Clayton, then it was on to outside half Owen Glastonbury for a second unconverted try.

Llandaff raised their game again causing their visitors to infringe for a penalty which brought them within two points of the Abercarn total.

Midway through the half, Llandaff took the lead for the first time with a well taken converted try from a five-metre scrum. Both sides worked hard to split their opponents' rearguard only to be thwarted by good tackling.

With ten minutes of the game remaining Abercarn gave one last effort to push the Llandaff pack over their own line for scrum half Clayton to collect the ball and score the decisive try from close range which he followed up with the conversion to take the spoils with a two point win by 15-17.

Next Saturday, Abercarn entertain Alltwyn at the Welfare Ground in the early rounds of the Welsh Cup.