Fixture

Blackwood Stars traveled to Caldicot on a windy day. The Stars had a very depleted side due to injuries, work commitments and players away on works xmas functions etc. The Stars had just 16 players to choose from with just 1 prop and 2 hookers and was therefore expecting a very difficult match against a team who are currently third in the table.

Due to the shortage of front row players the Stars reluctantly had to elect for passive scrums and could therefore have no replacements. Despite this the Stars players who turned up showed huge commitment to the Stars badge; adding to their problems the ref showed a soft yellow card to Matthew Davies just before half time so they were down to 14 men for 10 minutes. Also Dan Evans had to leave the pitch with a injured shoulder with 20 minutes to go and Caldicot scored 3 tries during this period.

The Stars scored 2 unconverted tries. Gregor Oliver scored the first try; the Stars forwards made a number of driving mauls down the centre of the pitch and then moved the ball left for Gregor to score in the corner. The second came from a line out on Caldicots 22 meter line when the the Stars forwards created a driving maul and pushed Caldicot over their line with Ryan Hughes at the bottom of the maul to claim the try.

The final score was 55-10 to Caldicot. This was a character building day and all the players came away with a lot of pride and nobody could fault their commitment and effort. Any of the players could have been awarded player of the match but it was decided that Ryan Hughes was player of the match because of the number of carries and big tackles he did throughout the game.

Stars together stronger