Matthew Nuthall - BIC Cup Play-off

The sun was shining ...

Now That's What I Call 80's was blasting out of the PA system ...

The hairs on my arms were standing on end in anticipation ...

This could only mean one thing, it is the start of a new campaign for Pontypridd RFC.

This year we had to hit the ground running. Ponty had to play Cardiff in a one off play off game to qualify for the British and Irish Cup this season. I know ... I know ... you would have thought that being league and cup double winners last season would have been enough, but only the WRU in all their wisdom could engineer a situation where this was not possible! The WRU wanted regional representation in the cup, so the eight best teams from across the four regions all had to play off for the right to compete this year. Bonkers in my opinion ...

It was a tough old game. Cardiff got off to an excellent start racking up ten unanswered points. Ponty finally getting on the board with a well struck penalty. Cardiff then banged the self destruct button just before half time with two yellow cards in quick succession. This allowed Ponty to exploit the shortage of defenders and get some kind of parity at half time trailing just 10-13.

The second half was a really scrappy affair, and the result could have gone either way, but Ponty run in a try to edge ahead with just ten minutes to go. They missed the conversion to put pressure on themselves for the closing minutes. A penalty would have tied it for Cardiff. But despite some continual pressure from the Blue and Blacks Ponty kept them out of penalty and drop goal range. We held on to win 22-19.

I had a feeling that this season was not going to be a procession like last year, Cardiff certainly look a very competitive outfit this year. But we are through to the BIC Cup proper, we won ugly, but we won. The league proper starts next Saturday at home. Here we go again ...