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 Celtic made a number of changes to the team that lost to Cwmgors last week for their league encounter with Pencoed. They took the field confident of returning to winning ways against a Pencoed side also missing a some of their players.

From the start Celtic had Pencoed under pressure. Outside half Luke Richards set the backs in motion for full back Scott James to score a try wide out after about four minutes of the start. Celtic continued to ply the pressure on Pencoed with both forwards and backs combining well and were unlucky not to extend their score. However Pencoed weathered the storm and eventually broke out of their half. Pencoed closed the score when Celtic infringed and the penalty kick was successful. Celtic responded and put the Pencoed side under extreme pressure, with both wings Ben Poole and Sam Mines seeing plenty of the ball, and full back Scott James always looking to get the ball in hand. The pack dominated all phases of forward play with Mark Hillier Rees and Alex Jones taking their fair share of line outs and the back row of Ryan Jones, Oliver Petty and Peter Kehoe working hard both in the tackle area and in the loose, but it was the front row of Sean Lambert, Ashley Poole and Matthew Philips who created the platform to trouble the Pencoed pack. The next score came when good ball handling saw Pencoed under pressure once again near their line. The forwards were held up and from the resulting scrum Celtic pushed the Pencoed eight  backwards for No8 and Captain Oliver Petty to cross  over the line to score a try, converted by Luke Richards. Pencoed followed this up with a penalty to reduce the deficit. Pencoed then had an injury to one of their props and with only a hooker on the bench, they requested passive scrums

Celtic were still able to play the game they wanted. The experienced Luke Richards at outside half was able to dictate play either with his deft kicking or using the strength of centres Nathan Healy and Lee Arthur. Despite the pressure Celtic were unable to further their score, as the Pencoed defence held firm.

The second half saw Celtic making a change at prop with veteran prop Damien Phillips coming on to give Sean Lambert who has been outstanding so far this season, a well earned rest. The home side continue where they left off and were soon making ground towards the Pencoed line. Scrum half Leon Evans distributed the ball wisely between backs and forwards, which lead to some fantastic interplay with the forwards which saw Oliver Petty crash over in the corner for an unconverted try. Celtic put on fresh players in Rhys Bevan Jones, Aaron Williams, Nathan Adams and James Jones who invigorated the play. This was highlighted when Oliver Petty scored the best of his three tries. He mesmerised the Pencoed defence, when he sold more dummies than Boots to cross for Celtic’s fourth and bonus point try.

Celtic took five points to keep them at the top of the league, with a crunch game against fellow contenders Ystradgynlais next Saturday.