Caldicot 29 Chepstow 20

Caldicot came out eventual winners on the biggest derby in South Wales on Saturday afternoon at Longfellow Road.

In a thrilling game that was really 50/50 from start to finish Caldicot found a few more answers late on and with 14 men defeated a young resilient Chepstow outfit.

With Caldicot entering the game on the back of 2 good wins to start the season and Chepstow the opposite with 2 close losses it was the home team that were big favourites to take the spoils. But it was the away side Chepstow that from the first minute looked to be the better side, completely dominating the Caldicot team for the first 40 minutes. Chepstow grabbed the first points with some great forward driving eventually creating a penalty opportunity the Ben Childs Chepstow's 10 easily converted, Sam Thomas at full back for Chepstow then chased a long kick down leaving the Caldicot back 3 in his dusting grabbing the first try again converted by Ben Childs taking the score to 10-0. Caldicot then capitalised on a few mistakes that Chepstow made and went over for one of their own in the corner from back row Joe McLean which was not converted 10-5. Chepstow then came out firing again with some huge tackles being put in from both Chepstow centres Shane Reece and Ryan Gusscott who has the upper hand all day when needed which then gave the forwards time to turn ball over and through lots of forward pressure Zak Watson Chepstow's outstanding number 8 then crossed to score just before half time to take the score to 17-5 at the break.

The second half then started and within 5 minutes seen a red card for Caldicot's number 10 for a cheap punch right in front of the referee. With Caldicot then being down to 14 men the game looked all but over for the home side. But Chepstow naively took their foot off the gas and with their backs against the wall Caldicot came out fighting. The Caldicot forwards seem to get a second wind and with Chepstow now making he mistakes Caldicot started to capitalise and their young scrum half was turning the screw. They pulled it back to 17-15 with a converted try and a penalty from the young 9 who last year changed the game for Caldicot and there were signs the same was happening again. The young Chepstow team kept battling and should have then gone further ahead when full back Sam Thomas broke then line, kicked through and was in for the try until some foul play from Caldicot's back row seen him taken out and Chepstow had to settle for the 3 points 20-15. Unfortunately for Chepstow this was the last time they saw the ball with a desperate Caldicot side scrapping for the ball at every chance and in turn getting another two tries through hard forward drives with Richard Shuck Caldicot 8 and another back row substitute crashing over late on to leave the game finished at 29-20 to the home team. Although the game had its derby moments it was a huge and positive advert for grass roots rugby with so many super talented youngsters on show for both sides.