Fixture

The Stars travel to Caerleon where in the past they have never lost. This encounter however was likely to be more difficult because Caerleon was currently top of the league and unbeaten.

The Stars started well and took the game to Caerleon and was leading 3 nil after about 20 minutes Caerleon then attacked deep in their own half and scored a well worked try to lead 5 -3. Caerleon scored another converted try, against the run of play, making it 12-3 at half time. Just before half time the Stars had some bad luck when loose head prop Brad Jones left the field injured and his departure left the Stars scrum considerably weakened.

From the kick off Caerleon kicked long and some bad handling errors by the Stars gave Caerleon a srum advantage 5 meters from Stars try line. From this scrum Caerleon scored a push over try which was converted and further increased their lead to 19-3. Stars continued to show good commitment and never gave up despite caerleons advantage at scrum time. Gavin McDonald made another fantastic run breaking three tackles and resulting in Kyle Tudge scoring a try under the posts to make the score 19-10. With only 15 minutes to go it looked as if the Stars were going to come away with at least a bonus point but unfortunatly the Stars replacement prop Josh Allen had to go off injured and the scrums then had to go passive. Caerleons backs took full advantage of this and run in 3 tries in the last 15 minutes to win the game 36-10.

The score did not reflect the game and the Stars can take a number of positives from it. Up to half time you couldnt tell which was the unbeaten side at the top of the table and there were some gutsy performances from Adam Perry, captain Simon Hughes, Gavin McDonald and the Stars back row of Ross Martin, Lloyd Exton and Mike Preece. Kyle Tudge controlled the game well; he scored all of the points and did some fantastic kicks and was named man of the match.

The Caerleon backs were of a high standard and probably the best in the league they have been developed through Caerleons structure gone off to play for championship sides like Pontypool and Newbridge and returned to their home club. It was clearly evident that a number of their backs had played at a much higher standard in the past.