Ebbw Vale ............. 26
Glasgow Caley ..... 18
GLASGOW Caley yesterday suffered the festive season hangover they had badly wanted to avoid when they were floored by a pre-European double-whammy at storm-lashed Eugene Cross Park.
Hopes of a morale-boosting win in the build-up to their make-or-break Heineken Cup trip to Dublin were shattered - and their injury problems worsened as several players joined the casualty list.
Richie Dixon's bedraggled brigade return north today - and immediately resume training for Friday's vital encounter with Leinster. The coach admitted: ''It was a pretty miserable time all round for us. The conditions were awful, but that is not an excuse.
''We simply didn't put enough points on the board when we had the upper hand in the first half - and we were again guilty of trying to play too much fancy rugby at the wrong times.''
To add to Dixon's woes, lock Steve Griffiths was taken to hospital with a dislocated wrist and prop Willie Anderson faces another long lay-off after ripping biceps. In addition, winger James Craig and front-row man Alan Watt both took leg-knocks.
The Reds put in a solid enough first-half display to hold the lead at the break, but the Welshmen battled back to complete the Celtic League double.
The opening exchanges were scrappy as both sides tried desperately to shake off the festive season cobwebs. Play was confined to midfield with neither team looking likely to establish any significant early superiority.
It was Ebbw Vale who had the first chance to break the deadlock when they earned a kickable penalty after 14 minutes, but the opportunity was squandered when the normally accurate boot of stand-off Jason Strange sent the ball wide of the target from 30 metres out.
Caley made the most of their reprieve by seizing the initiative midway through the half with a cleverly worked touchdown featuring comeback veterans Ian Jardine and Craig Chalmers.
Centre Jardine provided the platform by splitting the defence with a typical strong and straight break. Skipper Chalmers was perfectly positioned on his shoulder to act as the link before sending Craig over for the score.
Chalmers, anxious to put his long run of injury worries behind him, confidently slotted the conversion to give his team a useful cushion. The Steelmen struck back quickly with a penalty by Strange, but four minutes before the interval Chalmers restored the margin with a well-struck penalty of his own.
Glasgow's hopes of carrying their advantage into the second period were dashed as they let Ebbw Vale surge back into the picture.
First, Strange lofted over his second penalty, then completed his treble in the third minute of stoppage time to reduce the gap to a single point in favour of the Scots.
Another Chalmers strike just three minutes after the restart gave the Reds some breathing space, but by that stage it was clear that Vale's powerful and well-drilled pack were beginning to assert control where it mattered most - up front.
The Caley defenders were having to work overtime as the home side stepped up the pace.
Flanker Nathan Budgett looked certain to score after bursting off the back of a maul, but he was hauled down inside the Glasgow 22 zone by No.8 Jon Petrie, whose chase-and-chop was one of the highlights of what had developed into a dour struggle.
The Steelmen were not to be denied, however, and it seemed only a matter of time before they would make the vital breakthrough - and it was powerful centre Jonathan Hawker who did the damage with a fine try in the wake of a driven maul deep inside the Reds' danger area.
It was the first time that Ebbw Vale had been in front - and from the moment that Strange slotted the extra points, they never looked like losing their grip on the match.
He added a fourth penalty after 71 minutes, before captain Mark Jones crashed over at the death to seal Caley's fate - although the Scots did manage a consolation last word when replacement Jason White claimed an opportunist try.
Ebbw Vale - S Taumalolo; S John, G Williams, J Hawker, A Wagstaff; J Strange, G Easterby; A Phillips, A Peacock, D Penisini, C Billen, K Faletau, N Budgett, B Clark, M Jones (capt). Replacements - I Thomas for A Phillips, 76; L Philips for Peacock, 68; G Green for Clark 54.
Glasgow Caledonians - B Irving; I McInroy, A Bulloch, I Jardine, J Craig; C Chalmers (capt), F Stott; D Hilton, G Scott, A Watt, S Campbell, S Griffiths, M Waite, D McFadyen, J Petrie. Replacements - R Reid for Craig, 59; W Anderson for Watt, 40; J White for Griffiths, 17.
Referee: N Williams (Bryncoch)
Scorers: Ebbw Vale: Tries - Hawker, Jones. Conversions - Strange, 2. Penalties - Strange, 4. Glasgow Caley: Tries - Craig, White. Conversion - Chalmers. Penalties - Chalmers, 2.
Scoring sequence: 0-7, 3-7, 3-10, 6-10, 9-10 (HT), 9-13, 12-13, 17-13, 20-13, 26-13, 28-18.
qTHE World Cup hangover continued to have an effect in Wales yesterday, when the crucial Celtic League encounter between Cardiff and Neath at the Arms Park was called off at short notice.
A Cardiff spokesman said: ''We had a new pitch laid as part of the re-development of the Millennium Stadium and the turf has simply failed to knit together. It becomes waterlogged very easily and there is a real danger of us being left with a large backlog of fixtures.''
Alex Lawson and Mark Taylor each bagged a try double as Swansea crushed Caerphilly 62-8 at St Helen's. Touchdowns from Gareth Wyatt, Sonny Parker, and John Colderley paved the way for Pontypridd's 25-7 success against Newport at Sardis Road, and there was a shock at the Brewery Field, where Bridgend pipped Llanelli 10-9.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article