LEGENDS update : A fitting tribute!

Everyone associated with the club was delighted at the success of the Steve ‘Junna’ Jones memorial game which was watched by a packed Welfare Ground.

It was nostalgia all the way as some of the stars of yesteryear turned out one more time!

Newport Gwent Dragons and Newbridge favourite Paul Turner (and Dai Rees) returned to show us some of their trickey.

On the Pontypool side, Eddie Butler played the full 80 minutes, his first game for 17 years and showed he not only still possess all his faculties but the skills to match.

David Bishop was as competitive as ever to the delight of his adoring (Pontypool) fans while Mark Jones showed he still isn’t averse to the odd bit of skull-duggery.

It was all played in a super spirit and there could hardly have been a more fitting tribute to ‘Junna’ than this, and how he must have loved it as he looked down on the superbly well organised event.

The game was played in four 20 minute periods with Butler shaming the lot of them by staying the entire course while cameo appearances from a few like Bishop had the crowd roaring.

There was lots of running from a still youthful Jason Williams and Richard Lewis and a fair bit from not quite so young Byron Hayward contributing to a memorable occasion in front of a packed Welfare crowd of around 3,000!

The first quarter was scoreless as players tried to come to terms with that they were doing, then Newbridge forged ahead through a try by Williams converted by Hayward.

The third quarter witnessed a near riot of scoring as Pooler levelled through a Pat Hayes try, which was converted by Mike Goldsworthy before Newbridge got a clinching double through Peter Thomas and Kenny Waters, both converted by Hayward.

Pontypool, to the familiar chats of ‘Pooler, Pooler!’ even in a game like this, came back through tries by Darryl Rowles and Roger Bidgood, but Newbridge had the final say with a try and conversion by Hayward.

Former Pooler wing stalwart Goff Davies summed it up at the end when he said breathlessly, “That is the last time I will ever put a rugby jersey on!” Shame!

Our Commercial manager Matthew Jones stated, “On behalf of Newbridge RFC I would like to thank the players and team managers along with Liz (Junna’s widow), Molly (his daughter) and family.”

“The object was to make it a fitting tribute and we went a long way towards achieving that.”