Fixture

After all the rain from the previous few days the playing surface was in great condition for this top of the table clash. And new signing Le Little General Luke Richards of Wales World 7's, Swansea record points scorer in a season, Neath, Caerphilly, Maesteg, Llanelli, Tonmawr and Maesteg Celtic fame controlled the game from number 10.He had his outside backs running from all his little deft passes and kicks over the top or long kicks to pin back Baglan in their 22 many times. We kicked off towards the river and put Baglan under some pressure but good defense kept us out but we won a penalty which Richards slotted to give us the lead. With the scrums looking even in the first quarter we soon got on top of the big Baglan props which have been the biggest pair of props we have come up against we then began to get on top. And with the good ball provide by our pack Richards dictated play and put us on the front foot.Both defenses kept the try line intact but from some pressure from Baglan they won a couple of long range penalties the first one by Dan Bleddyn was missed but he put over his second attempt. With both teams trying to play open rugby and both defenses holding strong we then won a couple of penalties but Richards missed the first but he also put over the second attempt for a 6pts to 3 lead. But Baglan soon cut our lead with another fine penalty from Bleddyn.With Damian Warlow showing up well in our pack followed by Robert Molly Jones, Neil Sainsbury and captain Stef Williams all running hard and winning some good ball we caused our opponents some anxious moments. From the final move of the half Richards sat back in the pocket and dropped a delightful goal to give us 9pts to 6 lead.

The second half proved exactly as the first with both teams going at each other but our pack were getting the better of the Baglan eight and their big props were tiring fast and a number of scrums were going backwards. We then lost Centre Rhodri Milsom to a yellow card for ten minutes but even down to 10 men we were never put under any pressure in defense and our line was never under any pressure. We then gave away a penalty and Bleddyn drew the scores level. this set the tone for a big last twenty minutes and temper boiled over once but was brought under control by the Referee Mr Ian Jones of Bridgend controlled the game well.  We won a couple of mauls and at one the Baglan 7 pulled down a maul and he also left the field for 10 minutes. After a series of forward drives were we just failed to cross for a try we were awarded a couple of scrums we drove back the Baglan pack only for them to collapse the ref awarded another scrum again we drove them back for them to again collapse and the referee went under the posts for the penalty try which proved the winning score. 

Top of the table is now even tighter and we wait for the WRU to update the table to see who are top on my reckoning it is us by 1 try and we also have a game in hand on Baglan. 

Our next game will be December 1st at Home to Alltwen RFC All support welcome.