MACHEN THANKFUL FOR “COMMUNITY RUGBY” INITIATIVES

The Caerphilly club are flying high at the top of the Division 5 East table – and officials are thanking Moffett’s “community rugby” initiatives.

“I agree with everything David Moffett has done for Welsh rugby and it’s sad that he’s leaving us,” Machen secretary Roger Blenkiron said. “He basically told clubs that the more work they did, the more money they would get. We’re doing a lot of work and we’re getting more money than we used to.”

Press officer Chris Walden adds: “David Moffett is a big fan of community rugby, and I’m happy to say that community rugby is alive and well and living in Machen.

“We’ve got big player numbers all through the ranks. Counting the veterans, we’ve got nine sides and it’s not only the top team doing well.

“The Seconds and Under-16 sides are performing well and our Youth team is unbeaten. There are five Machen boys in the Dragons’ Under-15 side, as well.

“We’ve even got huge interest from seven-year-olds, even though they’re too young to play. We’ve got hundreds of kids interested in rugby at the moment.”

Walden admits that Machen’s position at the top of the table is slightly misleading, as their four wins have come against four of the bottom five clubs. And they play the fifth cellar-dweller – RTB Ebbw Vale – this weekend.

Two other sides – Bettws and Usk – are also unbeaten after four matches, and Gwernyfed and Blaenavon have won four out of five, meaning five teams of the 12 clubs are locked on 12 points in the closest League table in Welsh rugby.

“We’re obviously very happy with the start we’ve made, but we realise it’s going to get a lot tougher,” Walden said.

“We’ve won our first four as well as beating Crynant in the first round of the Konica Minolta Cup – we play Tondu at home in the next round – but we’re not getting too carried away. We had a tremendous start to last season before shooting ourselves in the foot and finishing third.

“We’ve looked good so far this season and we’re scoring plenty of tries, but we won’t be underestimating Ebbw Vale this Saturday. We quite like being unbeaten!”

Senior coaches Gordon Pritchard and Gareth Blake have produced a free-running, try-laden side so far this season, with centre Paul Clarkson in particularly hot form.

“We’ve also got a quality backrow this year with David Williams, Mark Lamorte and former Caerphilly player Geraint Fox,” Walden said. “We’d pitch that backrow up against anyone in Wales.

“As well, we’ve remained unbeaten despite our captain and scrum-half Johnathan Wright being out of action with a groin strain. We’ve got good depth in most areas and things are looking good.

“We have the best clubroom facilities in the country and our ground is so good, we always finish our season first because we never have to cancel games. We’re getting good crowds at the Welfare Ground and things are looking very healthy.

“We formed in 1871, so we’re one of the five oldest rugby clubs in Wales – it’s time we went up a division!”