Cyclones home, 1sts
9-15 Remco Broekhuis (5), Joey Niblett (3), Dave Thomas (1), Amy Shillabeer, Josh Cockburn, Lee O’Sullivan, Natalie Gardner, Rachel Knight, Sian Hunt
After a series of comfortable victories, Dragons 1 faced their first major challenge of the season against Cardiff City Cyclones. City had also won every match so far, and at full strength went into the game as slight favourites. By contrast, Dragons were without Jack who was with the England Student squad, while Helen and sub Julie both dropped out with injuries on the morning of the match, meaning Natalie was called into unexpected action.
The game started evenly with City scoring regularly, with Susan and Ramzi particularly threatening, but Remco’s impressive shooting kept Dragons in the hunt, scoring 4 of their first 5 goals, Joey contributing with a drop-off. After that, though, City began to pull away, with Ceri being particularly clinical. Dragons passing came under pressure and 2 City goals came from failed attempts to pass the ball from defence. At half-time, City led 9-6.
The second half was scrappier, with both teams tending to rush their attacks in order to create chances, but City were still able to maintain their advantage without coming under too much pressure. The key difference from past encounters was that Dragons were unable to maintain control of the collect which allowed City’s superior passing and movement to keep them on top.
However, the gap between the two teams wasn’t huge and at full strength and with a few more games to improve their match-sharpness, Dragons will hope to overturn the result.
Thanks to Terry for reffing.