Fixture

Wins for both senior teams.

This Saturday was one to celebrate, with the first team getting a hard-fought win over promotion rivals Barry, and the strongest second team that we’ve fielded for a while, beating Caerphilly.

The first team started off really well and took the game to Barry, whose only answer at this stage seemed to be to infringe. As a result, after only three minutes the referee awarded a kickable penalty to the home team, but this was pulled wide. However, the Abercwmboi players stayed on the front foot and were soon rewarded when a lineout near the Barry goal line was driven over for hooker Scott Cutlan to touch down for the first score which was converted by centre Paul Edwards. This score roused Barry and the subsequent period was very hard fought with Abercwmboi having most of the possession and territory but being thwarted by a sterling defensive effort led by No 7 James Hadfield. Half-way through the half, the stalemate was broken after trademark strong break from Outside half Jordan Rees who put centre Paul Edwards in for a try to bring the score to 12 – 0. After this, it seemed to some of the crowd watching that Abercwmboi rested a little on their laurels and the visitors came back strongly, firstly with a well struck penalty from full-back Kyle Barross closely followed by a try from hooker Alun Evans converted by Barross to bring the score to 12 – 10. With the home crowd becoming nervous and hoping that the 2 missed penalties and 1 missed conversion were not going to cost us the win, they were glad to hear the half-time whistle.

The team talk by the coaches had some effect on the home team, because they started the second half as they had done the first and took the game to the visitors, who appeared to have no answer other than to give penalties away and the crowd, at one point, were wondering if the referee had forgotten to bring his yellow cards. After 10 minutes of pressure the visitors yielded to a try from flanker Josh Richards converted by outside half Rees. Abercwmboi were again having the lions share of possession and territory and were rewarded when replacement flanker Sean Crawford finished off a team move to score the bonus point try, with Rees again converting the score was now 26 – 10. However, Barry showed great fighting spirit and rallied towards the end, scoring two unconverted tries along with a final penalty from Jordan Rees for the home side to make the final score 29 – 20.

The first team have an equally tough encounter next week when they travel to Llantwit Fardre who, after beating St. Peters on Saturday, currently sit 3^rd in the league only 8 points behind us and with a game in hand .