Fixture

Well the rain finished before kick off and we entertained a very young Neath Athletic team that beat us in the pre-season Andrew Vaughan cup match at Court Herbert. This win kept us on top of the division with 5 from 5 wins but we were not at out best at times during this game.

Neath kicked off and put us under a little pressure and we were guilty of giving away a early penalty under our post's for handling on the floor and their outside half took his chance to put them into the early lead. After this setback we got a foothold in the Athletic half and from one attack the ball found fullback Kingman raced away to score a try which wing Josh Thomas converted.

We kept attacking whenever we could but from a rare visit into our 22 we gave away another penalty for offside in front of our posts which our opponents duly slotted to cut our lead to one point.

Again we hit back immediately with a converted try when our forwards put the Athletic defence under pressure and Steffan Hnatiuk back in the centre after a couple of games at scrum half was powered over for a try which Thomas again converted. 

The remainder of the half we were well on top but we took the wrong options going down the blind to much with the ball screaming to be put along the line. The Athletic defended well and tried to get out of their half every time they could and they did have some success in doing so. There was no more scoring during the half and it ended 14pts to 6 in our favour.

The second half was a carbon copy of the first half with us having the monopoly of the ball but again wrong options and our visitor's living off scraps. We pounded the line and were held up by some good tackling by Neath and we failed to ground the ball a couple of times.

We then attacked up the right and managed to cross for our third try when Robert Molly Jones forced his way over for another try converted by Thomas. After this it looked like we may run away with it but the Athletic defence stood strong. Scrum half Howells crossed after some good approach work but in the act of putting the ball down when he was tackled by two defenders and the ball was knocked from his hands under the post's.for which would have been our bonus point try.

When ever the Athletic could get some good ball they tried to get up field and put us under pressure but it was always a big ask of them because they struggled against a bigger pack of forwards was always short lived.

We won the ball and raced up field and the ball found wing Thomas who crossed out wide for our fourth and bonus point try which he failed to convert.Again we kept taking the wrong options and it looked like white line fever whenever we were in a position to add to our score we took the wrong option.

The Athletic then won a lot of ball in our 22 and the ball went out to their wing who scored a good try which went unconverted, and this proved to be their final score.

With the game going into the final quarter we again went up the right hand side of the field and the ball found Scrum half Howells back after three week of being unavailable to cross for our fifth and final try of the game. 

A bonus point win which increased our lead by a point over Bryncethin at the top of the table, but we must cut out mistakes when attacking close to the line.

Next week we travel to Penlan RFC kick off is 2-30pm, where will will have to step up a bit but we welcome back a couple of players who have been unavailable for a couple of weeks. All support welcome. Player's bus will leave the club at 12-15pm.