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Maesteg Celtic welcomed Nantyffyllon RFC back to Garth Park for the first time in 6 years. The game started with a bang with Celtic putting huge pressure on the Nanty defence right from the kick off and after a series of scrums near the Nanty line, No 10 Luke Richards placed a superb grubber kick behind the defence for centre Matthew Harris to gather and score a fine try, which he duly converted. Celtic continued to dominate this early period with their scrum proving very effective, through their front row of Lloyd Griffiths, Matthew Phillips and Sean Lambert who went on to have a very strong game. The pressure again told when they were awarded a penalty 35 yards out which Matthew Harris again converted. Celtic were 10 nil up in as many minutes and appeared to ease up, but the Nanty pack had other ideas. It was their turn to put pressure on Celtic, competing and chasing everything forcing Celtic into mistakes with their back row C. Phillips, R. Osgood and R Boast very prominent. They were rewarded with a penalty wide out on the touch line, which was very well converted by outside half N. Jones. The rest of the first half was a dog fight with Nanty keeping things tight and Celtic trying to play a bit more expansively but were well contained by the Nanty defence.

 The second half again started with Celtic on the attack. They got on top at the line out with Alex Jones once again showing his class, and Jonathon Davies driving hard off the back row. Once again Nanty came back strongly with Captain J. Phillips leading by example. The game swung again following a good run by C. George was halted by a great tackle from Luke Richards. This seemed to kick start Celtic back into life.  Matthew Harris kicked another fine penalty. Some strong running from centres Nathan Healy and Matthew Harris, together full Back Kristian Jenkins breaking clear on a number of occasions eventually led to Captain Ollie Petty squeezing over in the corner for a well deserved try.

Celtic opened up now with the forwards on top with replacements Damian Phillips, Matthew Jones and Neil Arthur making an impact and the backs running freely with Kristian Jenkins again showing a fine turn of pace. The Nanty defence held out and to their credit they rallied and came back to score a try in the last few minutes by winger J Thomas.

Final score Celtic 18 – Nantyffyllon 8,

A fine hard fought derby with a large crowd and played in good spirits

Sponsors “SYSTEMS PIPEWORKS LTD Man of the Match was Celtic`s Matthew Harris