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Llanelli v Aberavon MatchPack : Report
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Definitely 'one that got away' was the feeling amongst the Aberavon faithful after this absorbing encounter, while darkly muttered references to 'getting our of jail' were overheard from the Llanelli contingent.
In truth it was a result that could have gone either way, and while the home side scored three tries to the
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| visitors' two, there was a great deal of opportunism about much of the scoring and Llanelli found themselves under pressure for long periods, particularly in the second half when one Aberavon try was ruled out, somewhat mysteriously, by referee Gwyn Morris for an obstruction in midfield that only he saw, and another golden chance went begging when Ashley Beck went gliding through the home defence but then failed to find Paul Bamsey with a scoring pass. Eventually time ran out with the Wizards still piling on the pressure, but they were forced to content themselves with a losing bonus point as opposed to a memorable away victory.
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While the respective fly-halves Luke Richards and Jamie Davies keeping the scoreboard ticking over with goalkicks, a great deal of endeavour came from both sides as each, in turn, tried to break down the other's defence. It was Llanelli lock Dominic Day who eventually broke the deadlock, breaking through two tackles to crash over and present Richards with an easy conversion to make the score 10-3. It was short lived, however, as Davies' boot narrowed the gap before Aberavon's former Llanelli centre hacked through a loose ball, kicked ahead again and then showed great pace and control to cross at the other end. The conversion gave the Wizards a 10-16 interval lead which was no less than deserved.
Second-half changes amongst the Aberavon ranks saw Marc Breeze – an all action contributor in the loose – make way for the return to action of Ospreys hooker Richard Hibbard, and he was later joined on the route to recovery by lock Lyndon Bateman, who replaced Chris Gittins. Both had their moments with ball in hand, and with Andy Lloyd also playing the full eighty minutes at flanker, coach Shaun Holley should have been more than satisfied with their progress towards full fitness.
For Llanelli full-back Dan Evans caught the eye, and was responsible for bringing his team back into the game with a searing break that set up a corner try for wing Matthew Jacobs, and soon afterwards lock Aaron Shingler showed a good turn of speed for a big man to touch down at the posts. With Richards having converted both things looked ominous for the Wizards, but there is no shortage of resilience at Aberavon these days, and they came surging back with a series of sustained attacks that had the home defence reeling before Davies, after countless phases, spun out the perfect pass to send Paul Bamsey racing through. The conversion brought it back to within a point, and it looked for all the world as though the visitors would steal the result as another period of close to the home line saw the home threequarters conjure a huge overlap only for Mr Morris to call a half to the move and penalise the Aberavon centres for crossing, and then further infuriated the visiting fans by ruling that Bamsey, in cleverly preventing the kick from crossing the touchline, knocked the ball forward. It set up a position from which Richards was able to kick a late penalty to open up a four point gap, and ultimately the clock ran down with the Wizards again on the offensive looking for the winning try that never quite came.
Paul Williams
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