CIACS RFC 47 SEA VIEW RFC 12

THE VIEW visited CIACS with high hopes of a victory, having run them close in the home fixture.

Sadly, it pretty soon turned into a bad day at the office.

Despite superb work from the Sea View pack at the set piece, Phil Hughes giving the CIACS front jumper a torrid time, CIACS established a healthy lead.

With the View playing catch-up rugby from early on, gaps and mistakes were ruthlessly exploited by CIACS.

The score line of 28-0 at half time did not reflect the effort of the View.

The pack well and truly had the better of it at the set piece, driving CIACS off their own ball on a number of occasions, the home forwards disappearing under the Blue and Black steamroller.

The line out benefited from the return of Chris Hann, playing his 25th game for the View, and secured plenty of opposition ball, Rhys MacAloon at the rear having a great game ably assisted by front row lifters, Messrs Burston, Huelin and Veness.

Trevor Huelin made some great runs in the loose, as did the back row Joe Maytum, Chris Hann and Jon Blake.

Blake, playing his 25th game, gave the CIACS defenders a lesson in the use of the hand-off.

Going forward the View had few problems, the half backs Cotter and Smith had plenty of ball.

The centres James Braithwaite, starting the game with one black eye and finishing with another to match, and Damion Huggins, recovered from his injury of last week, both looked on good form.

The wingers, Ben Cotter and Joe Perry both had several runs down the flanks, and Daniel Glennie at fullback as ever put in some crunching tackles.

But Saturday seemed to be the day that the View paid for every missed tackle, every slight gap, every slightly forward pass, every borderline decision.

The second half continued in the same vein, huge efforts from Sea View and CIACS racking up the points.

The View used their replacements, Joe Maytum being replaced by Gareth Lowes, also playing his 25th game. Tim Fowler took the field for an impressive first cap replacing Tom Cotter, brother Ben Cotter being replaced by the hard tackling Justin Sammut.

Daniel Glennie was replaced by Aaron Bond. Mark Veness left the field to allow Antony Williams to torment both referee and opposition loose head!

Deep into the second half the View were rewarded for their efforts, the forwards driving over from close range for Chris Hann to score, conversion added by Damion Huggins.

A second try was scored soon after, Huggins and Macaloon grounding the ball together backs and forwards in perfect unity.

Congratulations to CIACS. Thanks as always to the supporters, for venturing into Grangetown and to Mel Curran for the photos.

A thank you also to Leon Ford for organising the trip to watch Cardiff Blues on Sunday.

With Wales taking centre stage the next two weekends, View return to league action on March 27 for an away fixture at Tongwynlais, before a final league match on April 10 at home to Sully.

www.seaviewrfc.co.uk for details.