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Aberavon v Bridgend MatchPack : Report
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While their two hookers, Marc Breeze and Chris
Wells, provided the most memorable moments of this match, it was an
accomplished team performance from the Wizards that got their league
campaign back on the winning track.
Bridgend, meanwhile, amid a great deal of publicity surrounding
off-the-field difficulties, seldom posed a |
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| serious threat, adopting a robust approach in defence
that too often tried the patience of the referee, but having little to
offer in terms of attack. |
A scrappy, forward-dominated opening half saw the Wizards dominate
territorially, using the wind at their backs to good effect, but poor
finishing saw any number of half-chances go begging, and instead they were
a mere eight points ahead when the interval eventually arrived after some
eleven minutes of injury time. Marc Breeze had opened the scoring, doing
well to support Richard Carter, take the final pass and hold off the last
defender to squeeze in at the corner flag for an unconverted try.
It was not until almost the stroke of half time that the home side added
to their tally when, despite flanker Chris Davies having been sin binned
for persistently infringing in the rucks, further pressure yielded a
penalty opportunity with which Jamie Davies made no mistake. In between
Carter, Paul Bamsey and Steve Davies had all come close to scoring for the
Wizards, but on each and every occasion the move broke down.
At the interval the Wizards traded in power for pace at scrum-half. With
Gavin Hooper, a strong, “ninth-forward” type player, having refused to
yield an inch and drawn the sting from the visitors' extremely physical
challenge, a change of tactics was called for, so Hooper made way for
Chris Morgans, a completely different type of player, who began to spread
the ball quickly and cause alarm bells to ring in the visitors defence.
Despite the visitors having finally got off the mark with a Gareth David
penalty, the result was the gradual dissolution of the their discipline,
and as they found themselves reduced to fourteen and then, very briefly,
thirteen men with scrum-half Rhys Webb and flanker Matthew Tidball both
seeing yellow for rather foolish indiscretions, Davies banged over two
straightforward penalties to start building what was to become a
commanding lead.
As the match wore on the home pack increasingly dominated. A line-out that
had creaked badly during the early exchanges recovered somewhat, and in
loose play Richard Morris was on top form, with back-row colleague Darryl
Thomas and skipper Ian Moore always ready to step in as effective ball
carriers when the evergreen Morris was indisposed.
It was again Marc Breeze who caught the eye as the result moved beyond
doubt. While elder brother Paul was turning in a full eighty minutes at
tight-head prop, the younger sibling decided to involve himself wide out
in attack, making a clever half-break and managing to get the ball away
behind the defence to give James Garland a sniff of the try-line. The
full-back needed no second invitation to swerve outside the remaining
cover and cross in the right-hand corner. It made the score 19-3, and
Bridgend heads visibly dropped. They had made extensive use of their
bench, including the introduction of former Aberavon favourite Greg Dix
into the front row, but still never looked like troubling an Aberavon
line-up that had still, at that stage, used only one of their seven
replacements.
Ten minutes from time Wells replaced Breeze, and having watched the
Cwmafan youngster receive the earlier plaudits, he decided to get in on
the act. As Bridgend conceded yet another penalty inside their '22', the
alert Morgans took a quick tap and fed the ball inside to the supporting
Wells, who crashed over. Davies converted magnificently, then did so again
as Wells went one better, this time taking a pass from Carter and brushing
off would-be tacklers on a fifteen-metre run to touch down in exactly the
same place.
Ricky Thomas, Simon Peters, Andrew Fisher and Mike Harris all emerged from
the home bench in the closing minutes, but the match had long since ceased
to be a contest, and with Wells' second touch-down having earned the
Wizards a bonus-point, they could reflect on a job well done. Meanwhile
Bridgend, who had of late done well to pick up a number of league points,
even in defeat, to pull themselves away from the dreaded relegation zone,
never realistically looked like repeating the feat on this occasion. While
they remain fifteen points clear of bottom club Maesteg, with a potential
five points on offer for a league win they will feel far from comfortable.
Paul Williams
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