News

Maesteg Celtic visited Skewen for their first away game in division one. The home side started the game well. Their big physical forwards won the forward battle which allowed their backs to feed off good ball. Their outside half was able to pin Celtic in their 22 area. This eventually saw Skewen run in a try as a result of their backs playing at pace and putting their winger over for an unconverted try. Despite Celtic giving their all with flankers Jonathan Davies and Peter Kehoe trying to get amongst them, Celtic were having a job to subdue Skewen. Once again, their pacy backs ran well and with Celtic falling off tackle, they crossed for their second try, which was converted. Celtic seemed to be off the pace quite a bit and were probably paying the price for not having a game last week due to the withdrawal of Maesteg RFC from the league. They went further behind when a scrum five metres out saw the Skewen pack drive Celtic over the line for another converted try. As the first half progressed Celtic seemed to be starting to get to terms with the pace of the game with back three Scott James, Geraint Roberts and Lloyd Jenkins showing their pace 

Celtic began to show that they were able to compete. However they let themselves down with some poor tackling and Skewen were able to run in their fourth try which was converted. One of the plus points for the Celtic side was that they were dominating the line outs through Alex Jones and Captain Oliver Petty. From this they were able put in a number of driving mauls to put Skewen under pressure. The front row of Damian Phillips, Ashley Poole and Sean Lambert worked hard against the opposition front row. Outside half Matthew Harris began to come to terms with the pace of the game. He made some good kicks on a number of occasions and also brought into play centres Harrison Evans and Kristian Jenkins, who tried hard to break down a resolute defence.

The second half again didn’t start so well for Celtic. Centre Kristian Jenkins failed to clear an innocuous kick from the Skewen outside half by trying to run the ball out of defence instead of kicking. His pass was intercepted by Skewen and they ran in their fifth and final try of the game which was converted to make the score 33-0. After this Celtic turned things around and good play by both forwards and backs combining well put pressure on the Skewen defence and Captain Oliver Petty was able to crash over for a try converted by Matthew Harris. Coach Keiran Power made changes which seemed to have the desired effect and it was Celtic who were putting the opposition defence under pressure. Some darting runs from scrum half Lee Arthur enabled him to cross for Celtics second try, which was converted by Matthew Harris and the last score of the game.

Matthew Harris had the accolade of Celtic’s Man of the Match.