Croesyceiliog RFC - 31

Abergavenny RFC - 15

ABER were left wondering what went wrong after being routinely dispatched by a Croesyceiliog side who prior to Saturday's encounter had won only two games this season.

Languishing in the lower regions of Division Three East, the Cockerels really shouldn't have poised too much of a problem for Aber, but they did, and were left crowing with victory after flying to an early start at home.

Aber were missing Chris Anderson at outside half and Jon Owen had stepped into the outside half role with Sandy Aitken at scrum half.

Sam Vaughan retained his place at full back from last week and was supported in the back three by Andy Watson and Will Johnstone. A strong centre partnership of Jack Flower and Stuart Davies completed the back line.

The forwards began with Brian Wright, Gareth Williams and Owen Staphnil in the front row. Dan Horler was the main jumper with Steve Coles at lock and the back row consisted of James Williams at eight with Paul Cornouck at seven and Alex Gethin at six.

From the kick off three Aber forwards stood under the ball and let it bounce gifting the home side possession.

From this error Croesy gathered and after a few phases drove over from a driving maul, converted by their outside centre who turned out to have an impeccable day with the boot (7-0).

Buoyed by their early success, Croesy pressed again and were soon rewarded with another try following an infringement at the tail of a lineout five yards from Aber's line. 

A quick tapped free kick saw a forward pile over the line for another easily converted try (14-0). The Cockerels compounded Aber's misery with a further penalty kick taking them to 17 points in as many minutes.

One would have thought Aber had stepped off a transatlantic flight and not the short journey from Abergavenny to Cwmbran such was their early lacklustre performance.

It took 30 minutes for Aber to eventually 'get off the bus' and play some ball.

Playing 'heads up rugby' a mismatch was seen early and the ball was spread to the centres and Stuart Davies went off on one of his trade mark runs from half way, out pacing would be tacklers and a final hand off put him over (15-5).

The backs seemed to have the upper hand over their opponents through pace and ability but sadly were not to fully exploit these talents. Wrong options taken and unforced errors gifted possession to the homeside.

The forwards began to get the upper hand over the home eight yet the visitors lacked structure to force home their advantage.

The lineout functioned well and Croesy had no answer to Aber's power in the scrum, yet the Croesy number eight had a fine game and even made ground behind a retreating pack.

Too many errors at the breakdown saw Aber give possession away.

Aitken at scrum half had his best game of the season taking more responsibility and mixing up the kicking, passing and running game. A massive scrum from the pack released the ball to wing Will Johnstone who was hauled down short of the line to signal the break (17-5). 

After a customary roasting from coach Tony Morgan, Aber began the second half much brighter. With the pack well on top they drove at the home side and after a rolling maul on the home line Dan Horler scored (17-10).

It looked as if Aber would gather themselves and romp to a victory, but alas, wrong attacking options at the restart gifted Croesy possession and with their kicker on form took three points (20-10).

Sam Vaughan was injured and replaced by young Josh Guy and a reshuffle of the backs saw him at scrum half and Aitken go to full back.

Aber now had the majority of possession and territory, yet simple errors set them back. This was compounded with a yellow card for Alex Gethin for offside and suddenly the task looked harder still.

From the Penalty Croesy took a further three points, (23-10).

Yet with 14 men Aber responded by scoring the try of the game from deep within their own half.

Watson fed Aitken on his outside and at half way he looped an overhead pass inside to Jack Flower who fed inside for Josh Guy to sprint under the posts.

Incredibly the conversion was missed compounding a sorry day with the boot that would have kept Aber in the game (23-15).

Another error at the restart gifted the ball away again and another long range penalty sapped Aber's resolve (26-15). Aber now playing catch up rugby tried to run from deep but further errors gave Croesy both the ball and the last word as they scored a try at the death to give them a 31-15 victory.