Flying start pays off for RGC
RGC travel to Aberavon this Saturday aiming to stretch their unbeaten run in Principality Premiership West to 10 matches.
The Gogs maintained their lead at the summit last weekend with a 31-19 victory over Neath at Stadiwm Zip World.
Assistant-coach Phil John was frustrated by the team’s second-half performance in the bonus-point win against the Welsh All Blacks.
The hosts were unable to build on a 24-0 half-time lead and had to withstand a strong comeback from the bottom side in the second period.
John said: “It was a game of two halves in true form and at half time the boys came in thinking job done, whereas Neath would have talked about discipline and not giving us field position and it worked for them.
“We gave away far too many penalties in the second half and the frustrating thing was many of them happened when we had the ball. We gave away the ball far too much, got turned over when we had possession and our ball carriers were isolated.
“The positives include we picked up another bonus point win and I thought Cam Davies had a great first half. He controlled the play and that gave us a good platform.
“This is another learning experience for the team and we move on, and as long as we learn from the second half then we will be in a better position next game.”
If RGC deserved credit for some good rugby in the first 40 minutes, then they have a lot to improve on based on the second-half display .
The game was very stop-start for the opening 15 minutes and the visitors would have been happy in containing the RGC attacking threat. As soon as the first real RGC break occurred they sparked into life. Aron Evans and Tiaan Loots combined to make some good yards just short of the line.
The trusted boot of Jacob Botica hit the first points with a penalty to get the scoreboard flashing.
Cam Davies was beginning to put his mark down on the play, and it was an impressive run from the scrum-half that set Afon Bagshaw on his way for the opening try after 18 minutes with the extra points for Botica.
The All Blacks were reduced to 14 men when prop Ryan Thomas was shown a yellow card and RGC ramped up the pressure on the Neath line.
That pressure turned into points when Loots smashed his way over the whitewash for the try, with another Botica conversion to extend the lead.
That margin was extended to 24 points on the half-hour mark when Aron Evans broke the defence to touch down. Once again fly-half Botica nudged the kick over.
It was the quick hands and fast feet of the RGC backline that were causing all the problems with Cam Davies setting much of the tempo, and as the players headed into the dressing room at the break the crowd were expecting more in the following 40 minutes.
RGC went close to getting the bonus point try early in the second half when Botica had a chance, but from that point it all began to fall apart.
The Gogs struggled to keep the ball, and when they did have it they found any way possible to give it away.
As temperatures dropped so did RGC’s intensity and game management.
Credit to Neath as they won the battles in the second half and picked up three tries in the process.
Ed Howley dabbed down twice to close the score.
Jordan Scott was yellow carded for RGC, but surprisingly the home side became more composed with a man less and nerves were calmed when Tom Hughes grabbed the bonus point try, Replacement Dion Jones kicked the conversion.
It was the visitors that claimed the last try of the match when Scott Gibson ran over in the 70th minute but RGC saw the game out to claim the five-point victory.