Fixture

Abercwmboi welcomed Llanishen to the Welfare ground for the first time on Saturday, and the visitors put up a performance which belied their lowly position in the league. For much of the match “the Village” were second best to Llanishen but knuckled down at the end and managed to pinch a bonus point win.

The visitors, deservedly, opened the scoring when number 8 Noah Callaghan finished off a team move with a try under the posts to give centre Tom Hannah an easy conversion. With only 15 minutes gone Llanishen added to their lead with another try scored out wide by wing Sam Williams. Abercwmboi started to come back into the match at this point, but they did not show their usual precision and a few chances were wasted before Tom Hannah added a penalty to give the visitors a 15 – 0 lead to go to half time.

After some stern words from the coaches, Abercwmboi seemed to wake up a little in the second half and captain Lee Jarvis finished off a move to get the home team on the score board. Within ten minutes of the break full back Anthony Kemble scored out wide to bring the Village to within touching distance of Llanishen at 15 – 10. However, the rest of the second half was a rather dour affair with the teams cancelling each other out until, with only ten minutes left, Abercwmboi lost the ball near the Llanishen line and the visitors went the length of the field to score through hooker Shaun Lynch and seemingly take the game from Abercwmboi. The home team showed great spirit in this last period and when captain Lee Jarvis touched down for his second try and centre Paul Edwards converted, they knew they were in with a chance. From the restart, Abercwmboi again attacked the Llanishen line and were rewarded with a penalty five meters from the line. The easy option would have been to take three points, but the players showed confidence and opted for a scrum. The scrum was driving towards the Llanishen goal line when it was collapsed, and the referee awarded another penalty, which the captain again opted to take a scrum. When this second scrum also collapsed under pressure the referee had no choice but to award a penalty try, giving Abercwmboi a 24 – 20 win.