Abergavenny RFC - 15

Bonymaen - RFC - 25

ON a very wet and blustery afternoon, Abergavenny welcomed Bonymaen to Bailey Park in the second round of the Swalec Bowl, and in a game of thrills, spills, and flowing rugby, the clarets were ultimately undone by passive scrums.

The visitors are flying high in Division one west central and have only suffered two defeats this season, but from the start Genny showed their opponents no respect, applied the pressure, and gave the visitors a game to remember.

Eventually the Bonymaen defence cracked when second row Dan Morris capitalised on some solid driving play by the Aber pack and drove over for the first score.

Bonymaen bounced back on the offensive with the whole team eager for the ball, but Aber’s forwards were in fine fettle, putting the Bonymaen pack under severe pressure.

After winning a series of penalties which Aber exploited to keep the visitors pinned in their own half, Bonymaen upped the ante and began to play some rugby.

From an attack deep in their own half, stout tackling forced the away side to spill the ball which was kicked upfield by Aber winger Ieuan Mainwaring who controlled the ball to win the race and score, converted by Mat Sevenoaks, 12-0.

The score ignited the away team and they came back at Aber strong, by keeping possession and going through several phases, which eventually resulted in them scoring an unconverted try to make it 12-5 at half-time.

Come the second-half and Bonymaen attacked with the elements, kicking an early penalty to make it 12-8.

Abergavenny responded in kind with a penalty of their own by Mat Sevenoaks to stretch their lead, 15-8.

From here on in the away side were forced to adopt passive scrums and this nullified one of Aber’s best attacking options.

With clean, uncontested ball, Bonymaen’s backs now started to run the ball with more fluency and stretched the home defence, which eventually resulted in an unconverted try to cut Aber’s lead to three points.

As the home side tired, and with mere minutes left on the clock, Bonymaen took the lead with another converted try, 20-15.

To compound Aber’s misery, the visitors scored in the last seconds to make it 15-25, a score which the Bonymaen coach admitted flattered his team.

Next week Abergavenny are away to Abertillery and all support would be greatly appreciated by the club.