Abergavenny RFC - 17

Pill Harriers - 27

LOOKING to put a little bit of Saturday's 'Spring' weather into their step and distance themselves from their dreary midweek mauling at the hands of the Tredegar Ironsides, Aber welcomed 'city slickers' Pill Harriers to Bailey Park last Saturday.

Pill, who possess one of the strongest packs in Division Three East had beaten Aber handsomely in the away fixture, but looking for some sort of redemption from four defeats on the bounce, the Bailey Park brigade were determined to make a fist of things.

18-year-old John Paxton began his second game for the first XV at scrum half with Stuart Davies at outside half.

Centres Ed Davies and Jack Flower alongside wings Will Johnstone and Andy Watson with Sandy Aitken at full back completed the backline.

Frank James and Owen Staphnil were the props to aid and abet hooker and captain Gareth Williams.

In the engine room at lock was the ever present Steve Coles and Dan Horler and the back row consisted of number eight Paul Cornock with Josh Hitchman at blindside and Tom Rees doing the honours at openside.

With the sun at their backs, Aber began brightly with some running rugby in pitch perfect conditions.

The home side opened the scoring with a well-worked try created and finished by Stuart Davies after some good build up from the pack.

Davies took the ball wide and looped with wing Andy Watson to score in the corner (5-0).

Pill with their monster pack soon responded with a try created from a scrum on the Aber 22. They took the ball to one wing and stretched the home defence, before spreading it across field to the opposite wing to score, (5-5).

Aber were putting in a spirited performance and Jack Flower created their second try after breaking a tackle midfield offloaded to Will Johnstone who rounded his winger and scored under the posts, converted by Stuart Davies, (12-5).

Aber were now playing with the belief which was lacking in recent matches.

However, the scrums were Aber's Achilles heel as the power of the Pill pack saw them shoved off their own ball.

It was a rare sight for an Abergavenny pack as they floundered in the face of the unusual power of the Pill eight, who seemed to be punching above their weight for a Division Three outfit.

All in all it proved a difficult platform for young Paxton to work from but he gave a good account of himself all afternoon.

From a scrum centre field the Pill number eight picked and drove 40 yards to the Aber try line where a penalty was awarded five yards out. It was no surprise they opted for a scrum and the number eight scored an easy pushover try, converted, (12-12).

Pill lost a player to a yellow card for dissent after a warning from the ref, yet they still managed to take the lead with a penalty in front of the posts after Aber were guilty of entering a ruck from the side. This took the half time score to 12-15 for the visitors.

The second half did not live up to the first half with many unforced errors making it a scrappy affair.

Tom Rees did his best to defuse the power of the Pill scrum by tackling the number eight when he broke and getting up to 'jackal' the ball first before support arrived.

Dan Horler was dominant in the line-out supplying a constant stream of possession to Aber from the pinpoint throwing of Gareth Williams.

In a carbon copy of their first try, from a scrum on Aber's 22, Pill took the ball wide before returning across field to score in the corner aided and abetted with some suspect tackling from the home side, (12-20).

Aber rallied and from a line-out five yards out, they rumbled to the posts through a series of drives which sucked in the Pill defence and enabled them to release Paul Cornock who dived between two tacklers to score, (17-20).

This set up a tense finish with either side able to snatch victory.

There's a lot of store to be taken in confidence and Aber who have recently lost their winning touch lacked the killer instinct to push on and secure the victory.

From a clearance kick the Pill number six gathered and ran straight and hard brushing off his tackler and sprinting 20 yards to secure a bonus point victory for the visitors, (17-27).

Life does not get any easier for Aber as the season closes and they find themselves visiting Garndiffaith next Saturday, KO 2.30pm.