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Nantgaredig 13 Taffs Well 9

The WRU Bowl Competition brings together two teams from differing regions each unaware of their style of play and their respective strengths and weaknesses. Such was the case on Saturday when Nantgaredig welcomed visitors Taffs Well who play in the Division 3 Central League. Taffs Well have already overcome Burry Port in an earlier round and are previous finalist in the competition. Nantgaredig have never progressed far in the Bowl and considered as underdogs even with home advantage. The visitors brought a coach full of supporters and were treated to a fantastic match although not the result they anticipated.

Nantgaredig were the first to put points on the board and this happened within minutes of the start. The away ream failed to gather a cross kick by anticipating the ball to run out of play. Little did they expect wing Dafydd Lewis to follow up and scoop up the ball and cross the line for an early try for Nantgaredig.

What followed was 80 minutes of frantic rugby. The visitors soon gathered themselves together to pressurise the home defence and force three consecutive penalties which ace kicker Brandon Thrasher at outside half nailed 9 points during the first half.

Second half continued at a blistering pace and only some stubborn defence by both sides cancelling scoring opportunities. Taffs Well looked to have put their winger over for a try in the corner only for home full back Rhodri Jones to intercept the final pass. The referee deemed his action to be a deliberate knock on and a yellow card was produced. With a man advantage, the visitors increased their pressure only for their influential scrum half to be taken from the field with a leg injury.

Nantgaredig weathered the next ten minutes and started to force errors in the visitors play. Nantgaredig kicked a penalty but outside half Meirion Davies failed with two further kicks which would normally be well within his range. However Davies had a superb game with his kicking out of hand which often took his forwards some 50 meters upfield into opposition territory. With the clock ticking down Nantgaredig were camped in the opposition 22 but were unable to find the score necessary to take the lead. Eventually, after a series of rucks and mauls, the ball was fed out on the narrow side to Gwyn Pierce who gave a sweet pass to his fellow second row Carwyn Davies to score what was to prove the winning try.

The home crowd went wild with delight and it was so good for the players to have such vocal support at a key stage of the match.

Team coaches Derek Thomas and Tomos Marks both agreed "we are very proud the way the boys played today. There are no easy games when you reach this stage of the competition. We expect another tough encounter whoever we meet in the next round. Let's hope we have a home draw again".