Captain's Column

We caught up with club captain Scott Matthews ahead of the new year celebrations to get his take on a mixed December and what 2022 could hold.

We had a long unbeaten run and it was obviously massively disappointing to drop that and lose that record but it just showed where we were at that point of the season.

A bit undercooked and a few injuries but that’s not an excuse. Neath were the better team on the day, they were hard to break down and they deserved to win.

For the TATA Steel RFC game it was all about putting them wrongs right and that’s the lovely thing about rugby.

You can put them wrongs right in a week’s time and we certainly did that. We played some fantastic rugby against TATA.

For me it was about encouraging the attitude of the boys. You could see some of them were really hurting and as captain it was about encouraging the attitude of the boys in training and you could see that want and desire to put things right was there.

One of the pleasing things to come out of the first three games has been our defence. Yes we lost at Neath but we didn’t concede any tries and we haven’t conceded a try in three games, which is a massive positive.

I talk about the great thing about rugby is you can put the wrongs right but COVID has certainly taken that away.

There was obviously a sense of disappointment that we didn’t get to play the last two fixtures before Christmas. I’m a big believer that you’ve got to finish the breaks on a high.

It’s much easier to pick up a jersey that’s playing well than it is to pick up one that is on a bit of a downer so we wanted to do that and unfortunately, we didn’t get the opportunity to do that.

We wish them all the best and hope that everyone is safe but from a selfish point of view we just wanted to play as many games as we could before the Christmas break, and I’m sure they did as well.

The one good thing to come out of it from a squad point of view is that we have had quite a big injury list and instead of having a two-week break we’ve had a four-week one.

We are excited to be back. I know the Welsh Government put a label on supporters watching matches. We just hope everyone can get back to watching us safely in the new year.

From myself and the rest of the squad we hope everyone enjoyed Christmas. We hope you were all safe and enjoyed the festivities. It’s always a special time of year, I enjoyed it with my family and I wish everyone had the same enjoyment as us.

We’d also like to wish you a Happy New Year. Things are changing moving forward with the new variant. We’re hoping it isn’t going to be as prolific as the last one and we can get back to seeing supporters at the Park enjoying themselves seeing us play in that jersey.

We hope to see you all soon but until that time stay safe.