Aberystwyth RFC 1st XV 50 – v – 19 Pontarddulais RFC 1st XV

Admiral National League 1 West

ABERYSTWYTH RFC welcomed Pontarddulais RFC who were making their first ever visit to Plascrug on Saturday. The officiating of the match by a female referee was another first for the club.

The hosts, lying in eighth place in Division 1 with 40 points, were in no danger of being overtaken by the visitors who occupied ninth place with 31 points but neither side would give an inch in this contest.

After both sides had taken time to settle down it was the home side who were first on the scoreboard with an unconverted try by Owain Bonsall after a good break by Carwyn Evans.

Then, after both sides had engaged in some aerial ping-pong, Aber’s flanker Iestyn Thomas made a strong run along the touchline before feeding Carwyn Evans with a try-scoring pass wide out. No 10, Steffan Jac Jones added an excellent conversion to extend the hosts’ lead to 12 – 0.

Pontarddulais took advantage of some sloppy defence by Aber to pierce their midfield for a converted try to close the gap to 12 – 7.

More Aber pressure led to a scrum under the posts. The ball was fed out quickly for Carwyn Evans to score his second try which was again converted by Jones.

The visitors hit back again and by taking advantage of more weak defending, scored an unconverted try wide out to close the gap to 19 - 12.

The hosts’ bonus point try came after the ball had been moved spectacularly through several pairs of hands for Hayden Beale to round matters off with a fine try and another conversion from Jones to extend the lead to 26-12 at the interval.

Aber now had the wind advantage and used it to gain ground to camp on the Pontarddulais line. However, frustratingly for the home supporters, individual effort was preferred to moving the ball out and the visitors punished the hosts with an interception which took them the whole length of the field.

After a hard chase and a huge effort, Beale prevented the ball carrier from grounding the ball for a try. Encouraged by this near miss Pontarddulais kept up the pressure and won a few penalties to finally cross for a converted try.

The home side now pulled out all the stops and after Jones had slotted a penalty kick Bonsall went over for his second try, brilliantly converted by Jones. Two more converted tries, the first by Jordan Thomas and the second, a hat-trick try by Carwyn Evans after a 40m break, completed Aber’s scoring to seal a win by 50 – 19.

The hosts’ forwards played exceptionally well. Apart from the usual strong contributions from wing forward Iestyn Thomas and the front row, there were very encouraging performances from the locks, Owain James and Owen Jones, and from No 8 Tomos Jenkins, all three products of the club’s junior and youth structure.

They did very well in the lineouts and were prominent in the loose, covering and attacking energetically.

Behind the scrum the new half-back pairing of Dylan Benjamin and Steffan Jac Jones worked smoothly and looked very promising and Jones’ kicking from hand and tee was clinical.

Carwyn Evans and Hayden Beal too played well with the latter prominent in attack and in defence. But the threat that Ben Jones on the right wing could have posed was wasted as he saw very little of the ball.

The more this young squad play together the better they perform. They all have the necessary basic skills and these were well displayed for all to see on Saturday. But individually they need better understanding and better teamwork in both attack and defence. This will take more time and require more help.

Aber play Gowerton RFC at home on Saturday, kick off 2.30pm.

Aber lost the away fixture heavily in February and will need all the support and encouragement of a strong crowd for the return match to halt their opponents’ rise in the table.

For the final game of the season on 4 May Aber will travel to Waunarlwydd to try to avenge the defeat they suffered in the match at Plascrug back in September of last year.