TEAM coach Kevin Shuck labelled his side's narrow defeat to St Joseph's of Cardiff "one to forget", citing ill-discipline as one of key factors in the 19-16 reverse, writes Keith Fairbank.

But he also heaped praise on the visitors' outside half, who took advantage of his side's gifted opportunities to settle the Division Four East clash. And Shuck was also able to find some positives from his side's performance, most notably from Gary Hill and Karl Lewis who both bagged their first tries of the season.

He said: "Noel Evans kicked two penalties and we were in the game the whole way through until the last, but we missed opportunities more than anything else.

"The forwards played reasonably well, after we'd worked on a few things in training and the scrummaging was good. But we didn't set up a clean platform for the forwards to show their best and it was cold night which saw too many unforced errors - so many it made a mockery of the game and it wasn't good to watch."

Caldicot's two tries came either side of half time, Hill going over in the first and then Lewis after the break - and Shuck singled out the young pair for their performances on an otherwise miserable night. The back row were good and we were scrumming a lot better, but our lineout didn't function and we suffered from ill-discipline. St Joseph's number ten at outside half was good and he took his opportunities. When you're playing against a good kicker like that, you don't give them as many points as we did.

"Both sides made unforced errors in the conditions, which you expect, but the outside half and our ill-discipline proved the difference."

Caldicot have a welcome break this week before travelling to Abertillery on Saturday, December 3. Shunk added: "We've had a few injuries and young players coming through, but hopefully they can get back on the field and gel together over the next two weeks."

Caldicot RFC's youth team have a home fixture this Friday night, kick-off at 7pm.