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News
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03.01.2012 - Preview: Llandovery v Aberavon
Second placed Aberavon travel to Church Bank on
Saturday to take on top-of-the-table Llandovery in the Principality Premiership
- kick
off 2:30pm.
Llandovery have had a good season with them being in the top three for a while, and
have led the league for several weeks. They started their season winning at home to Cardiff before losing at Llanelli. They then came to the Talbot Athletic Ground and were losing 10 - 25 in the 77th minute before
remarkably scoring 19 points in seven minutes to win 29 -
25. Further wins followed at home to Bridgend and Neath before they lost to both Ponty and Bedwas. Five successive wins were to follow as the Drovers defeated Swansea, Newport (twice), Tonmawr and Cardiff before losing to Cross Keys and Pontypool. On Boxing Day the Drovers won 16 - 10 at the Quins and
yesterday they won 11 - 9 at Pontypool.
In "attack", Llandovery have scored 358 points this season (6th highest
in the Premiership) and 40 tries (joint 4th highest). In "defence" they
have conceded 290 points (5th lowest) and 28 tries (5th lowest).
Aberavon have scored 342 points (7th lowest) and 38 tries (joint 5th
lowest), and have conceded 202 points (lowest in the Premiership) and 19 tries (joint
lowest).
Away from the Talbot Athletic Ground this season the Wizards have won 5
and drawn 1 from 7, whilst the Drovers have won 5 from 7 at Church Bank.
Top points scorer for Llandovery is Cerith Rees with 104 points. For the
Wizards the top points scorer is Jamie Davies with 139 points. Top try
for Aberavon is Richard Carter with 10 tries.
Head-to-head, Aberavon and Llandovery have met each other 32 times in
the Welsh National League (including Playoffs) with the Wizards leading the series by by
24 wins to 8. At Church Bank Aberavon lead 11 - 4, and won the last time
the sides met there last season 34 - 16.
Looking back ten years ago the Wizards raced into a 20 - 3 lead after just 15 minutes with flanker Andrew Thomas and wing Nicky Bonham scoring tries, and outside half Jamie Davies converting both and kicking a brace of penalties. Full back Stuart Harries kicked a penalty for the homeside.
The Drovers then came back at the Wizards with them reducing the Wizards lead to just four points as wing Gary Davies kicked a drop goal, before centre Tracy Lewis scored a try. Harries converted and added another drop goal.
The Wizards scored their third try of the game when wing Sam Greenaway scored near the posts with Davies adding the extras. In injury time, Ceri Davies scored the Drovers second try. Harries conversion made the score 27 - 23 at the interval.
Aberavon dug in well during the second half with two well worked tries finally killing off the homeside's challenge. The first try was by full back Ricky Price with centre Scott Leighton the second. Davies converted both and kicked his third penalty to make the final score 44 - 23 to Aberavon.
The Aberavon team that day was: Ricky Price; Sam Greenaway, Matthew Back (rep Paul Morgan), Scott Leighton, Nicky Bonham; Jamie Davies, Mark Davies (rep Daniel Hawkins); Mike Harris (rep Rob Price), Jason Hyatt (rep Matthew Harry), John Evans (rep Greg Dix), Dafydd Owen, Chris Gittins, Gareth Newman, Richard Morris, Andrew Thomas (rep Howard
Merrett).
The referee for Saturday’s game is Leighton Hodges, aided by touch judges
Greg Morgan and Terry Thomas.
The other Premiership games taking place on Saturday are:
- Bedwas (10th) v Bridgend (7th)
- Cardiff (9th) v Swansea (11th) (Cardiff won the corresponding fixture last season 15 - 11)
- Carmarthen Quins (8th) v Neath (3rd) (Carmarthen won last season 24 - 22)
- Llanelli (5th) v Newport (13th) (Llanelli won last season 33 - 25)
- Pontypool (12th) v Cross Keys (6th) (Pontypool won last season 18 - 16)
- Pontypridd (4th) v Tonmawr (14th) (Pontypridd won last season 31 - 8)
Update (06.01.2012) - Team Announcement
Aberavon Starting XV: Howard Thomas; Richard Carter,
Will Price, Craig Evans, Ricky Thomas; Jamie Davies, David Pritchard; Lloyd Howell, Gareth Harvey, Will Taylor, Gavin Ronan, Sam Williams, Nathan Strong, Richard Morris, Chris Davies (capt).
Replacements: Dan Davies, Liam Gadd, Nathan Brown, Ian Moore, Chris John, Darryl Harvey, Neil
White.
Llandovery Match Squad: Nio Aiono, Paul Davies, Phil Day, Pete
Edwards, Gerard Ellis, Andy Fenby, James Garland, Matthew Harbut, Dean
Howells, Matthew Jacobs, Shaun Jones, Luke Kendall, Luke Lewis, Emyr
Phillips, Cerith Rees, Lee Rees, Jack Roberts, Sam Soul, Gyles Vaughan,
Rob Walters, Dorian Williams, Adam Yelland.
(Click here for earlier news)
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