Fixture

Abercwmboi welcomed old rivals Taff’s Well to the Welfare Ground last Saturday and, in a real “Game of two halves” unfortunately ended up on the losing side.

In good conditions for running rugby, Abercwmboi started off by far the strongest and after 15 minutes were rewarded when flanker Sean Crawford touched down when a rolling maul was driven over the visitors’ line, the conversion by centre Shaun Davies adding the two points. The match was, for long periods, a real arm wrestle but the home team extended their lead further when number eight Lee Jarvis picked up from the back of an attacking scrum and scored a second try. This was followed by an exchange of penalties to maintain Abercwmboi’s lead. However, the home side were giving away too many penalties and Taff’s Well’s outside half kicked a further 3 points before half time to bring the score to 15 -6.

The second half started with Abercwmboi again on the wrong side of the referee’s decisions and were very quickly reduced to 14 men after a yellow card. During this 10-minute period, Taff’s Well took the initiative and clawed back their way back with a further two penalties. However, the Abercwmboi forwards looked to get the upper hand and prop Liam Owen scored a try of the back of a rolling maul. With only 15 minutes left, a second Abercwmboi player was sent to the sin-bin and again the visitors took advantage, scoring a try. They were also awarded a penalty try when one of the Abercwmboi players was judged to have deliberately knocked on, on the 22metre line. At this point Taff’s Well’s tails were really up and their full back scored a converted try to increase the lead. The Village, to their credit, were not finished and ended the match strongly, getting into a position where Shaun Davies could slot over a final penalty to give then the consolation of a losing bonus point.

The Youth team travelled to Ynysowen, and played some really good, skilful rugby to win 50 – 0.