Abercynon - 20

ABERGAVENNY'S survival in Division Two East is now officially out of their own hands following a disappointing defeat to Abercynon who bounced back from 18-6 down to crush the hopes of the claret and ambers with a simple conversion.

"Since Saturday the whole squad have been thinking of what could have happened, what did happen and what should have happened," announced coach Gary Lawrence earlier this week.

"I thought early on in the second-half when we were 12 points ahead, we were going to run away with the match. Unfortunately we gave away two soft tries which were subsequently converted, and now we're left playing the waiting game."

Lawrence added, "There's not a lot else I can say about Saturday, other than it was hugely disappointing. However, we've now got to put it behind us, focus on our two remaining fixtures and give everything we've got in the hope that things pan out in our favour."

Although Abercynon applied the pressure and the penalties early doors to take a 6-0 lead, Aber bounced back to make it 6-6 going into the interval courtesy of a drop goal and penalty by Steve Lang.

The claret and ambers stormed into the second-half with a vengeance, and the ever-versatile Paul Cornock who was having an outstanding game at number eight crashed over for two tries, one of which was converted by Lang to give Aber a 18-6 lead.

With victory and a potential crucial boost to their survival in sight, Aber floundered at the last and let Abercynon into the game, as the home-side went on to score two converted tries and cast Abergavenny ever deeper into the relegation mire.

Lawrence told the Chronicle, "Abercynon's tries came as such a surprise to us, because they were one-offs and came out of the blue. They were not created by phase play, in fact one came from a turnover. It was this as much as anything that made the result such a bitter pill to swallow."

Although Aber took a losing bonus point away from their narrow loss, with only two games remaining, and three relegation places awaiting the unlucky candidates, the Bailey Park brigade have to hope that their closest rivals for relegation, Rhydfelin, fare poorly in all their four extra games in hand, and that Aber win their final two games, against Brynmawr this Saturday, and Rhydfelin next Wednesday, if they are to be in with a shouting chance of survival.

As it stands at present, only lowly Treherbert are surefire favourites to have the bucket kicked cleanly from beneath their feet come the end of the season.

Yet who amongst the other contenders will join them in the awaiting drop? Abergavenny, Ynysybwl, Fleur de Lys and Rhydfelin are all likely contenders. Brynmawr on the other hand are definitely not, and that is who Abergavenny will be facing this Saturday at Bailey Park with a 2.30pm kick off.

So why not pop along and lend your support to spur Aber on into making their penultimate game of the season a memorable and defiant one.