|
News
|
29.11.2011 - Preview: Llanelli v Aberavon
Second placed Aberavon travel to Parc y Scarlets this coming Saturday to
take on eighth placed Llanelli in the Principality Premiership match.
Kick off 12:00 noon with the Wales v Australia game kicking off at 2:30pm.
The match will be the third time that the sides have met over a course of
a month. The Wizards won the reverse fixture 48
- 29 on November 5th, outscoring their visitors 7 - 4 on try count.
Aberavon's tries came from Richard Carter (3), Marc Breeze, Rhydian Gierat, Richard
Thomas and Ricky Thomas, while Jamie Davies kicked 13 points. Llanelli's
tries came from Iolo Evans, Jordan Williams, Allan Powell, Nic Reynolds.
Williams also kicked 9 points. A fortnight ago Llanelli turned the tide as
they won 47 - 22 in the British &
Irish Cup at the Talbot Athletic Ground. This time the try count was 5 - 3
in the West Walians favour as David Pritchard, Richard Thomas and Richard Carter
touched down for the homeside, while Craig Hawkins, Dan Newton, Jonny Lewis, Tavis
Knoyle and Shaun Hopkins scored for the visitors. Jamie Davies kicked 7
points, while Jordan Williams kicked 22.
Last weekend Llanelli beat Pontypridd 24 - 16 at Parc y Scarlets. After the win Llanelli's director of rugby Anthony Buchanan said, "We've had seven away games in the league, so we will look forward to the seven home games. The table will look a little less disjointed. I thought we were very worthy of the win. I thought our performance and our all-round game was very much on the money and it had to be. Forward-wise we got better and we controlled the game in pretty awful conditions."
In "attack", Llanelli have scored 298 points this season (5th highest in
the Premiership) and 33 tries (joint 5th highest). In "defence" they
have conceded 294 points (6th highest) and 32 tries (joint 6th highest).
Aberavon have scored 297 points (6th highest) and 34 tries (4th
highest), and have conceded 167 points (lowest in the Premiership) and
15 tries (lowest).
Away from home this season the Wizards have won four and drawn one of their games,
whilst Llanelli have won three from five at home.
Top points scorer for Llanelli is Jordan Williams with 90 points. For
the Wizards the top points scorer is Jamie Davies with 109 points. Top
try scorer for Aberavon is Richard Carter with 10 tries, followed by
David Pritchard with 5.
Head-to-head, Aberavon and Llanelli have met each other 25 times in the
Welsh National League with the West Walians leading the series by 16
wins to 7 with 2 games drawn. At Llanelli, the homeside lead the series
11 - 1 with the Wizards sole league win away coming in the 2003-04
season.
In that game Llanelli outside half Ceiron Thomas and his opposite number
Jamie Davies traded penalties before Daran Griffiths scored a try at the
end of the opening quarter. Davies converted and kicked another penalty
after half hour to give the Wizards a 13 - 3 lead. However, a try by
wing Daniel Rogers and conversion by Thomas saw Aberavon's lead reduce
to just 3 points at the interval. The homeside took the lead early in
the second half when full back Lee Byrne released centre Richard Davies
for an unconverted try. A third Davies penalty helped the Wizards retake
the lead before Richard Lewis scored a try in the corner. Davies added
the extras to give the Wizards a 23 - 15 lead after 64 minutes. Rogers
scored his second try of the game soon after with Thomas converting to
reduce Aberavon's lead to just one point. Ricky Price scored the Wizards
third try of the game in the last ten minutes of the game. Thomas and
Davies traded further penalties late on with the Aberavon holding out to
win 31 - 25 despite playing the last ten minutes down to 14 players.
The Wizards team that day was: Richard Lewis; Daran Griffiths, Aled
James, Gareth Jones (rep Darren Ryan), Ricky Price; Jamie Davies, Dan
Hawkins; Dinlle Francis (rep Mike Harris), James Jones (rep Jon Owen),
Paul Breeze, Steve Rees (rep Dafydd Owen), Chris Gittins, Jamie Summers
(rep Matthew Powell), Richard Morris, Steffan Edwards.
The referee for Saturday’s game is James Jones, aided by touch judges
Jason Langdon
and Mark Davis.
The other Premiership games taking place this weekend are:
(Click here for earlier news)
|
