Blacks sustain second half injuries

8:00am Wednesday 17th September 2008

Neyland 13.

Cefneithin 24.

Second-half injuries to key players caused Neyland problems against a strong Cefneithin side at the Athletic Ground as they lost a 13-7 interval lead to lose by 11 points.

Young outside-half Paul Murray had to leave the field with a bang on the head and Andrew Hansen sustained a cut head so that the Blacks’ battle plan was disrupted, despite the efforts of 37-year-old scrum half Mathew Williams to keep his team going forward.

Two excellent unconverted tries by winger Steve Richards kept the home side ahead at the interval as Murray also notched a penalty, with Cefneithin grabbing a try by Luke Jenkins which Chris Moore converted.

Neyland were rocked on to the back foot after the break as Cefneithin stormed down the slope and added further tries by Paul Pock and Jonathan Morgan, both converted by Jason Matthews to go with a penalty from Chris Moore.

Chris Busby, Robert Codd and Ben Lloyd all battled hard up front for the All Blacks alongside Andrew Slark and Simon Phillips but it was hard going after they sustained a few knocks and Cefneithin made the journey home with the league points.