ABERGAVENNY RFC - 14

BRYNMAWR RFC - 27

THE three month wait for a competitive home match ended in tears for Aber as a Division Two East Brynmawr side poured rain on the Bailey Park Brigade's parade and booted them out of the SWALEC Plate competition.

After last week's fine away performance at Abertillery, confidence was at a premium amongst the Aber lads. Subsequently the coaches stuck with mostly the same pack apart from the return of Rhys Willard in the second row.

The late withdrawal of Owen Williams and the continued absence of club Captain Gareth Williams through injury, forced coach Tony Edwards to play loosehead, leaving no front row cover on the bench.

The halfbacks remained the same with Sandy Aitken at scrum half and Captain Stuart Davies at number ten. Ed Davies replaced Jack Flower (flu) at inside centre and at outside centre, Aber saw the welcome return of another prodigal son - Will Johnson, transferred back to his home club from Cross Keys.

Andy Watson and Ian Davies took to the wings and the full back position was filled by Ryan Williams.

From the first whistle, Brynmawr showed a hunger for victory and were the more aggressive of the two sides in the opening exchanges, forcing Aber to defend on their try line.

Only a missed penalty gave the homeside possession from which to attack. They took the ball deep into the visitors 22 and from a lineout five yards out, Aber attacked with clean ball from Dan Horler at the front.

The forwards drive sucked in the defence around the fringes before the ball was spun to Will Johnson who took out three defenders. Aitken released the ball quickly to Stuart Davies who cut through the defence to score beneath the posts and convert his try (7-0).

Brynmawr responded quickly and assisted by a series of penalties against their hosts made ground. From a similar five yard line out the visitors gathered and mauled the ball over for a try and conversion to level the scores.

The visitors continued the pressure and again scored soon after with a driving platform from their pack setting up a centre who straightened the line from 15 yards to score near the posts (7-14).

A tenacious Aber then took the game to the visitors with Johnson and Number Eight Cornock proving a handful in the loose.

However, against the run of play, Brynmawr capitalised on a spilled ball with a high up and under to their outside centre who won the race against the covering defence to score under the posts and make it 7-21 going into the interval.

Aber began the second half more competitive up front with a series of pick and drives with Tony Edwards, Steve Coles and Paul Cornock prominent. The visitors were forced back into their 22 and conceded a penalty 15 yards out.

A quick tap and go from Aitken and a pass to supporting Stuart Davies saw him cross the line for a try easily converted to bring Aber back into the game (14-21).

The partisan home crowd were not enamoured by the ref's liberal approach to the offside law and felt some injustice that the penalty count was high in favour of the visitors.

This thwarted further progress and a period of stalemate with the visitors spending long periods in the home half and Aber defending.

A further try by Brynmawr was only saved by workhorse Steve Coles, who managed to ground the ball to save a try from the advancing winger in the corner.

Despite bringing on big ball carriers from the bench in the shape of Joe Davey, Josh Hitchman and veteran James Williams, little progress was made.

The loss of Cornock to a yellow card did not help the cause and the remaining points of the game came from the boot of the Brynmawr outside half to give them a comfortable 14-27 victory.

Aber will now look to renew their league campaign with vigour as they face a home tie against their old nemesis Blaina next Saturday with a 2.30pm kick-off.