News

Maesteg Celtic RFC entertained Nantymoel RFC in a rearranged league fixture The team was strengthened by the return of Lee Arthur, Kristian Jenkins, Peter Kehoe and Club Captain Oliver Petty. 

Before the match started a minutes silence was held as a mark of respect for two former Celtic players, Peter Isaac who also gained International honours at schoolboy level and Lyn Evans, who also served for many years as a committeeman. His son Alun Evans was a former player and is currently one of our main sponsors Elite Diving in Sharmel Sheikh, Egypt.

The game started and after a minute of playing, the early pressure was immediately rewarded with an unconverted try by flanker Peter Kehoe. Straight from the kick off Celtic went further ahead as a result of a driving maul, from which scrum half Leon Evans set the backs up for centre Kristian Jenkins, who went through some week tackling from the Nantymoel defence, to race through to score a try. Matthew Harris converted. As play went on Celtic were dominating all phases of play with the back row of Jon Davies, Peter Kehoe and Captain Oliver Petty showing up well and second row Alex Jones using all his experience to deliver good line out ball. Eventually the dominance told and Celtic went further ahead when centre Lee Arthur used his strength to score a try, converted by Matthew Harris.

Whatever was said behind the posts after the try Nantymoel come alive, especially the backs and showed some excellent touches, so much so that it was Celtic’s turn to be on the back foot. Eventually Nantymoel persistency paid off and flanker E. Davies crossed for a converted try. It was Celtic who scored next after the forwards once again secured possession from a line out and the ball reached centre Kristian Jenkins who managed to sprint clear and go over for his second and bonus point try.

The second half got underway with the Nantymoel team coming out and showing that after a slow first half they were not pushovers. As a result of their endeavour, they closed the score, when again their useful back line had Celtic in trouble when centre S. Collins broke through to score a try near the posts for S. Webber to convert.

Celtic scrum was on top for most of the game due to the front row of Damian Philips, Ashley Poole and the ever improving Sean Lambert, so it was only a matter of time before they increased their lead after Nantymoel were penalised and Matthew Harris converted the penalty.

Following that score Celtic made changes and brought Matthew Philips for his brother veteran prop Damian. Mark Hillier Rees also came on into the second row and Morgan Lloyd at scrum half. Nantymoel reduced the gap with another well taken try by flanker  E Davies  converted by S. Webber. This resulted in Celtic changing flankers Jon Davies and Peter Kehoe for Scott Lyons and Ryan Jones. This had the desired effect with more purpose to Celtic’s play. The opposition had no answer to the clean line out ball provided by Alex Jones and Rhys Bevan Jones and their strong driving maul. Once more it was the fleet foot of Kristian Jenkins who put Celtic further head when he crossed for his hat trick of tries which went unconverted. Later towards the end of the game Celtic put the game beyond Nantymoel, when scrum half Morgan Lloyd sprinted clear from a ruck to score Celtic’s final points with a try. Centre Kristian Jenkins was awarded MoM. This result allowed Celtic to consolidate their position at the top of Div 2 West Central.