Paul Williams (Cardiff Programme Notes)
March Memories
The announcement of today’s rearranged fixture rang a loud bell as the day and date, Saturday, March 7th, struck me as being a remarkable coincidence.
Why? Well, I’ll tell you. Exactly six years ago, on Saturday, Aberavon played Cardiff here at the Talbot Athletic Ground. For a compelling but personal reason the date sticks in my memory, which I will explain later. As it turned out, it was the last match played here for quite some time as, during the days that followed, all contact sport (and indeed most human contact of any kind) became illegal as the dreaded ‘lockdown’ was imposed in a bid to restrict the pandemic that swept across the world.
For rugby followers the professional game was allowed to continue ‘behind closed doors’, with live television coverage using recorded crowd noise that, under other circumstances, would have been laughable.
So, I hear you ask, what was the outcome of that Aberavon versus Cardiff encounter here, exactly six years?
Well I’ll tell you, starting with (what else?) the teams being announced:
ABERAVON – Jonathan Phillips; Chris Banfield, Chay Smith, Rheon James, Stefan Andrews; Aled Thomas, Rhodri Cole; Rowan Jenkins, Cameron Lewis, Geraint James, Rhodri Hughes, Sam Williams, Joe Tomalin-Reeves ©, Ashton Evans, Lloyd Evans.
Replacements: Lee Purnell, Luke Davies, Jordan Walters, Andrew Waite, Ben Thomas, Jonny Thomas, James Garland, Will Price.
CARDIFF – Edd Howley; James Beal, Max Llewellyn, Barney Nightingale, Teri Gee; Gareth Thompson, Tom Habberfield; Thomas Davies, Iestyn Harris, Will Davies-King, Filo Paulo, Callum Bradbury, Nathan Hudd, Morgan Allen ©, Luke Crocker.
Replacements: Brynley Toms, Ethan Lewis, Ollie Drake, Kieran Martin, Gareth Allen, Ethan Lloyd, Joseph Scrivens, Ioan Davies.
At the interval the score stood at 10-all, with the visitors having raced ahead with a try from Teri Gee and a conversion and penalty from Gareth Thompson. That 10-nil lead was then wiped out as Chay Smith went racing in at the posts for Aled Thomas to convert, and then Thomas kicked a penalty to equalise just before the half-time whistle sounded.
Cardiff were again first out of the blocks after the break, with another Thompson penalty being the only score of the third quarter. The Wizards eventually regained the lead after taking play through phase after phase until tight-head prop Geraint James touched down for Thomas to convert before kicking his second penalty on the seventy-minute mark to put the Wizards 20-13 ahead.
In a tense finale, the visitors had a rare chance to snatch a draw as Teri Gee touch down in the left-hand corner to, but the conversion attempt was off-target and the Wizards claimed victory by 20 points to 18.
Before that match, exactly six years ago, a large crowd at the Talbot Athletic Ground stood in silent tribute to a recently-deceased close member of my family. It meant a great deal… some things are more important than winning or losing.
