Rumney : 15.A.Carlson 14.J.Egan 13.S.McIntyre 12.P.Niblett (Capt) 11.T.Daly 10.D.Clark  9.C.Milton 1.C.Fitzpatrick  2.N.Ritchie  3.C.Maynard  4.A.Wilson 5.J.Mills  6.R.Fenton 7.R.Sutton  8.D.Rees  Replacements : J.Harris M.Way  G.Manning  M.Feneck M.Kelly

Blackwood : 15.L.Williams 14.A.Elliott 13.L.Knight 12.D.James 11.O.Williams 10.G.Jones  9.G.Rees (Capt) 1.I.Jones  2. L.White  3.C.Nutt  4.G.Short 5.B.Lampit  6.Adam Coupe 7.Andrew Coupe  8.L.Taylor  Replacements :  D.Tucker  S.Volks  J.Thomas  R.Davies  G.Davies

Referee : Lynne Davies, Porth

Scorers for Rumney : T.Daly try, S.McIntyre, D.Clark 2 penalties

Scorers for Blackwood : O.Williams 2 tries, G.Rees try, B.Lampit try, A.Coupe try, G.Jones penalty and 3 conversions

Rumney slumped to their heaviest defeat of the season so far when they came up against a methodical and disciplined Blackwood side at Riverside Park. After a shaky first five minutes the home side lost a scrum against the head near their posts and Blackwood Captain and scrum half Gavin Rees spread the ball wide for left wing Owen Williams to dive in at the corner. Outside half Greg Jones put over an excellent touchline conversion for a 0 - 7 lead and despite spirited Rumney attacks, with wing James Egan in particular showing his strength and speed, it was not long before the visitors exploited turnover ball and loose kicks to set up handling movements between forwards and backs leading to big gains in territory and the opportunity for Jones to kick a penalty. On the positive side for Rumney, second row Anthony Wilson stole lineout ball, flanker Ryan Fenton made a great break out of defence, fellow flanker Ryan Sutton was outstanding in the loose and full back Andrew Carlson handled difficult high balls, but poor handling, knock ons and turnovers gave the advantage back to Blackwood, whose defence was largely impenetrable. In the thirtieth minute Rumney opened their account through a penalty by outside half Danny Clark but immediately went further behind when visiting full back Lee Williams gathered another loose kick, pumped up a high ball which confused the home defence and allowed Williams to pounce for his second try. Rumney conceded penalties in attacking positions although Clark did pull back three points with a penalty, but another take against the head led to Blackwood No8 Lee Taylor unexpectedly working the blindside for Rees to score an easy try and put his side ahead by 6 - 20 at half time.

The second half started more promisingly for Rumney, No8 Dyfrig Rees and Fenton bursting from the back of a scrum to start a sweeping threequarter movement, and when Egan was finally stopped his neat flick to Stuart McIntyre put the centre clear to score a fine try. Within minutes Blackwood were back on the offensive and Rumney were only saved by handling errors, finding themselves penned back in their twenty two and struggling against the opposition forwards. In the forty eighth minute Blackwood second row Brendan Lampit gathered well at the back of a line out and burst the remaining fifteen metres through weak tackles for a good solo try, Jones' conversion stretching the lead to 11 - 27. More errors and indiscipline cost Rumney dear by allowing Blackwood to use penalties to relieve pressure, but the home side showed a more threatening side with Carlson cutting through the midfield and scrum half Geraint Manning controlling things from the base of the scrum and probing successfully, added to which the yellow-carding of Lampit gave the opportunity for the forwards to dominate. In the sixtieth minute Rumney second row Michael Kelly secured good lineout posession and snappy passing by Manning, centre Niblett and Clark led to winger Tom Daley miraculously scooping up a bouncing ball to glide in at the corner. Niblett and Rees linked well, prop Craig Fitzpatrick drove forward and Sutton added excellent cleaning up to maintain Rumney's dominance, but more errors and indiscipline presented Blackwood with chances to calmy work their way downfield and a penalty on half way allowed them to gain a position five metres from the home try line. Second row Gareth Short took clean lineout ball and from the resulting maul flanker Andrew Coupe burst away unopposed on the blind side for a corner try, Jones' touchline conversion bringing the game to an end and sealing a convincing win for Blackwood by 15 points to 34.

Steve Ford, Coach Rumney 1st XV : "After our away win at Beddau we were on a high, we had prepared well all week and had lots of confidence. It was quiet at the warm up, nobody was talking much, sometimes that's a good thing, but we kicked off and it was probably the worst half of rugby we have played all season. We struggled in the scrum and lost our first three put-ins, so we didn't have a lot of possession. Today's tactic was to play in the Blackwood third of the field and invovled a kicking game, but when we found it wasn't working we weren't clever enough to change our game plan, our chasing was poor, so was our defence and we were turned over in the ruck area. Blackwood slowed down all our ball and we didn't have good, clean, quick possession at all for the first hour. It was quite difficult to pinpoint what was going wrong, but if you haven't got the right attitude and the will to win, it won't work. We'll take a lot from this game, we've learnt another big lesson that we must start well and not wait until we are fifty or sixty minutes into the game. When we were playing well and not getting turned over we still could not get any momentum or phase play going. Blackwood slowed down our source of ball to the backs, all our ball was slow, we tried to shift it but it wasn't working. We must stop giving sides a ten point start, that was the most disappointing part of the game today. If I had fifteen men with the same attitude as winger James Egan I would be very pleased. The Man of the Match was Ryan Sutton, he proves how important lineout ball is, he gives you an extra yard and today he was excellent around the field putting in great tackles."

Tom Daly, winger Rumney 1st XV : "It was a very poor start, the pack struggled, there was no continuity and we couldn't get hold of the game at all in the first half. The second half started well but we still gave away soft tries. My try came from a nice pass out left from Danny Clark, I caught it and fell over to score. Blackwood are a good side, they took their opportunities when we gave those soft tries, we underestimated them after last week's win against Beddau, but we'll train hard to get an away win next week. Ryan Sutton was solid in the lineout and the loose, and Stuart McIntyre made good breaks today."