Fixture

The Young Saints headed east to play Chepstow and endured a fairly tough day at the office in a bruising encounter at the memorial ground. Chepstow are an extremely good side this year, having already beaten Whiteheads and Pontypool, so it was always going to be a difficult match for the developing Saint Julians side. The coaches firmly believe that players only develop by playing better teams and therefore were looking more at the performance than the result, and there were some positives to take away despite the one sided score line.

Despite playing uphill in the first half, Chepstow quickly took control of the game with some strong runs from their inside centres and tall rangy wings. However the Saints did not give up and many players really put themselves about making tackles and carrying hard. Perhaps the most pleasing aspect of the first half was seeing, on a couple of occasions, the ball being taken to the line by Ethan Griffiths who drew his man and popped to a rampaging Tay Smith bursting into a gap. These runs got the Saints over the gainline on a couple of occasions in the first half and will continue to deliver gainline successes in games.

Chepstow continued to score tries in the second half, and it took a good talking to from skipper Joseph Lee to kick Saints into gear. His words did the trick, as a period of sustained pressure in Chepstow's 22 followed, and some good runs and phaseplay caused Chepstow to give away penalties at the breakdown, which allowed strong hooker Kane Grosvenor burried over from short range.

The final score was a fair reflection of the game. Despite never giving up, the Saints really struggled to secure their own ball at the breakdown and were counter rucked and turned over too many times to make an impact on the game. All things that the coaches can work with players on over the coming weeks!

Full Time Score

Chepstow 49 - 7 St Julians RFC

Try Scorers

Grosvenor