LIFE LOOKING GOOD FOR HSOB

A 55-3 walloping of Talywain at the Diamond Ground last weekend cemented the Old Boys’ mid-table position, with Wakeford confident of further success down the line.

“I think our position in the table is a fair reflection of our performances this season,” he said. “Although with a bit more experience and control, we could easily have won all six games, instead of three.

“The win over Talywain was huge for us, not so much for the 55 points we scored, but for the three we conceded. We know we can score tries with our style of play, but we’ve been conceding too many.

“We’re trying to play a free-flowing, expansive style of rugby, rather than getting bogged down in the forward-orientated stuff like some of the Gwent clubs. It’s good to watch, but it’s fairly high-risk, so the tries have been flowing in both directions.

“The weather’s sunny and the tracks are dry now, so we have to make the most of it. When it gets wet and muddy, we may struggle against some of the bigger packs, although we do have a few players coming back from injury.”

Wakeford says the presence of “old hand” and former Wanderers fly-half Richie Marshall gave the side a boost against Talywain, with the club’s promising young No. 10 Paul Adams playing on the wing and scoring a hat-trick of tries.

“Paul’s been playing at fly-half for us, but we gave Richie a game and he controlled things well. Paul moved to the wing and bagged a few tries – he’s got electric pace and we’re hoping for higher honours for him in the future.”

Cardiff HSOB play northern club Dolgellau in the second round of the Konica Minolta Cup on Saturday, with Wakeford admitting: “I know absolutely nothing about them!

“They’re probably a tough side, but they have to travel a long way to play us and we’ll be looking to use the game to try a few things.

“It’s important that we win it, because we need a lot of confidence going into our next League game, which is away to a very good Garndiffaith side.

“It’s too early to talk about promotion chances, but if we continue to improve and get some consistency into our game, there’s no reason we can’t be in the mix at the other end of the season.

“We just need to play with confidence and hopefully ‘nil’ a few sides along the way.”