Merthyr opened their new 4G pitch at The Wern with a match against British & Irish Cup holders London Welsh and picked up some useful tips ahead of their debut in the Principality Premiership.
The new pitch is part of a £1.13m expansion at the ambitious club that will also see them erect a 700 seater stand, install new floodlights, and build new male and female changing rooms, weight training facilities and a dedicated youth centre.
A £500,000 grant from the Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council-managed ‘Ffos-y-fran Community Fund’ has been given to the major redevelopment programme which will support the club’s ‘New Shoots: Grassroots’ project.
The three-year project is aiming to attract several hundred regular participants from target groups of girls/young women, children and young people living in poverty and disabled children and young people, as well as up to 100 families taking part in community events, sporting activities and signposting services.
The WRU National League Championship winners of last season were outgunned up front by the powerful Exiles forwards and conceded five tries in a 31-7 defeat in their opening pre-season friendly.
It was perhaps just what they needed ahead of games with bigger and more experienced packs in the season ahead and they were only 14-7 adrift at half-time on their new pitch. Andy Powell scored the home try and Matt Jarvis added the conversion.
London Welsh, who changed their complete side at the break, had tries from Koree Britton and Kieran Murphy to thank for their 14-7 interval lead and then added three more in second half. Full back Chris Elder crossed twice and hooker Nathan Morris grabbed the other one.
“The first pre-season game can always be a little bit awkward, but the boys navigated it quite well. Our control and organisation were the most pleasing aspects,” said London Welsh head coach Buckland.
“The scoreline was also very pleasing – pre-season or otherwise you want to score plenty of points and not concede. We did concede a soft try but I felt the guys controlled the majority of the game.
“Merthyr were very competitive, but the guys managed to put some structures together and we were pretty organised. Defensively, we also had a pretty good work out as Merthyr were playing from everywhere.
“The only area we probably fell down on a little bit was in broken field, and the energy of the guys to stay in the game. But it was the first run out of the season and that’s now the benchmark.
“It’s now about next week and trying to get better. We’ve got Ebbw Vale in two weeks and we’ll try and get as much out of that game as we can to give ourselves the best preparation for Rotherham.”
