Fixture

On a warm October afternoon we welcomed close neighbours Pontryhdyfen to Ynyscorrwg park for what turned out a very fiery contest game littered with both red and yellow cards. We took the lead early in the game with a penalty from outside Half Nathan Healy. We continued to press the Ponty line but some poor ball retention and good defense we could not find a way across the line. Healy then missed a straight forward penalty. After that penalty miss Ponty began to get a foothold in the game then came the first blow up our hooker Neil Sainsbury was judge to have made a high tackle and when he was on the floor a Ponty second row was seen to stamp on his head but unfortunately the ref missed the stamp but yellow carded Sainsbury who received treatment for a nasty cut to the head. Then from the restart of that incident outside half Healy was judged to punch a Ponty player and he received a red card. Ponty then scored their first points of the day from the resulting penalty. Our pack began to dominated their opponents  and we scored our first try of the game from Jonathan Howells converted by Rhodri Thomas. Sainsbury then rejoined the game but unfortunately he left the field within a minute when his cut reopened and then went off to hospital where he received 9 stitches because of that cowardly act earlier in the game. the score at half time was 10pts to 3 in our favour.

The second half was very much like the first half with a lot of niggle going on and the referee not allowing the game to flow because of this. We then lost to players to the bin 1 for pulling down a ruck and the other for backchat at the ref and Ponty lost one for backchat also. So it was 12 against 14 for a while but from a good pick and go close to the Ponty line second row Robert Molly Jones drove over near to touch line for a try and fullback Rhodri Thomas converted with a fine kick. Ponty then hit back with a try of their own through Morgan Kennerely to make the score 17pts to 8 in our favour. We then scored our third try by captain Damian Warlow again from a good forward drive out wide and Thomas again converted with a fine kick from out wide. But Ponty hit back soon with another try out wide after their winger looked to be intouch but the Ponty touch judge failed to raise his flag. Then in the last 10 minutes our fitness told and we played some champagne rugby when we cut lose and scored three tries for long distance the first from Jonathan Howells for his second of the match which gave us a bonus point, when he broke from half way and with two defenders chasing him down he crossed out wide and another fine conversion from Thomas. Then after some good movement of the ball flanker Diddy Richards broke clear to score but the conversion was missed. From the kick off we won the ball it was then moved out to wing Josh Thomas who broke a few tackles to score but before we could take the conversion which Thomas missed Ponty had a player red carded for swearing at the referee, who had a very hard job controlling the game.