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16 April 2017 / Club News

Morriston v Penlan 15th April 2017

ANOTHER LAST MINUTE LOSS FOR PENLAN AT MORRISTON

On Saturday Penlan had yet another win taken from them at the last minute, this time away against Morriston. The weather was ideal for rugby as referee Mr Carwyn Williams got the game under way and made a fine job of managing the closely contested local derby.

It was apparent early on that the teams were closely matched but it was Morriston that lead the scoring with 3 points from a centre field penalty at 8 minutes.

The first half turned out to be an entertaining game of rugby as Morriston sought to make a bid for a final second table place to earn them promotion. Penlan were playing well though and put the home side under pressure at the 12 minute mark from their lineout in the Morriston 22.  Second row Kurt Velardo was on form as he burst through with the ball.  A fine off-load to No. 8 James Jenkins saw him advance the ball almost to the line before he made a last second pass to hooker Dean Davies who stormed over for the Penlan try, his second of the season.  Full-back Paul Spowart made short work of the difficult kick to give Penlan the 3 – 7 lead and take his league total to 133 points.

Both teams worked well to gain headway for the rest of the first half but despite Penlan looking the stronger side there was no further score until the half time whistle.

With replacements at half time, Morriston looked stronger in the second half but both teams had chances that they failed to make the most advantage of. The to and fro game was not as exciting as the first half although both teams were putting plenty of effort into trying to make headway.  There were a number of stoppages as players succumbed to their efforts and as the game went into injury time it looked as if Penlan had done enough to secure a narrow 3 – 7 win.  Then, almost at the last minute after putting Penlan under sustained pressure at their line, Morriston finally managed to get through the defence and score a try towards the corner.  The conversion kick narrowly missed but the damage had been done for Penlan as the home side secured the 8 – 7 lead.  Penlan immediately went back on the attack and advanced deep into home territory but, as they lost the ball, Morriston kicked off the pitch, and time ran out for them as Mr. Williams sounded the final whistle.

Morriston left the pitch knowing that they had been fortunate to secure the win but they had shown sufficient character not to give up.  Their promotion is still a possibility but they have 3 games to go and will need to raise their game to secure their place.

For Penlan’s part, they had to settle for the losing bonus point which was their sixth of the season.  Their loss was about the fourth of the season when they had seen a good win slip through their fingers in the dying moments of the game.  Two more games are left for Penlan, both away, - Resolven on 22nd and Nantymoel on the 29th April. Resolven are currently in second league position and have the potential to finish in second promotion place if they beat Penlan and Brynamman.  There is a potential 80 points for them to finish with, which is the same for Morriston, available from their remaining 3 games against Cwmgors, Ystradgynlais and Maesteg Celtic.

Other Division 2 West Central results are presently reported as –

Aberavon Green Stars 16  Cwmavon 27

Cwmgors 14  Brynamman 19

Nantymoel  Maesteg Celtic 26

Pencoed 30  Tondu 13

Ystradgynlais 20  Resolven 24

 

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