Blaenavon RFC - 29

Nelson RFC - 15

On a beautiful spring day at the Memorial ground, Blaenavon entertained Mid Glamorgan side Nelson and after a very entertaining game sent the visitors on their voyage home vanquished and without a victory to sail forth on.

Blaenavon started well and soon had the Nelson scrum under pressure resulting in a few early penalties which allowed Blaenavon early forays into the Nelson 25.

Ryan Bates at scrum half and Darren Pearce at outside half were denied by some robust defending by a Nelson outfit who slotted over a penalty to open the scoring after 16 minutes, 3-0.

Unforced errors cost Blaenavon dearly but eventually Nelson coughed up a penalty which Darren Pearce had no problem slotting over, 33.

From the restart Nelson kicked their way down to the Blaenavon 25 metre line putting Blaenavon under pressure, and after a poor clearance kick, the Nelson flanker charged down the Blaenavon's fullback kick to chase and score a good follow up converted try, 10-3.

Nelson now had their tails up and some slick handling put their winger away in the corner for a well worked try, but the conversion was missed, 15-3.

Blaenavon redeemed themselves just before half-time with a Darren Pearce penalty, 15-6.

The second half saw a totally rejuvenated Blaenavon team who applied the pressure, causing Nelson to infringe and concede two penalties which Pearce kicked to make it 15-12.

Some great running work from flying winger Matthew Powell saw him weave in and out of the Nelson defence to score a fantastic individual try in the corner, 17-5.

The hard working Chris Jones crashed over for a well deserved try, and Blaenavon's second which Pearce duly obliged with the conversion, 24-15.

A superb grubber kick by Dan Phillips to the corner left the Nelson fullback with no option but to take it into touch, the resulting line by Matthew Billings and good driving by the Blaenavon Pack saw replacement hooker Peter Loader drive over for Blaenavon's third, 29-15.

Blaenavon now hunting for that elusive fourth try and Bonus point went all out on the attack and from a clever kick ahead by Dan Phillips, winger Rhys Long chased to touch down.

Unfortunately the ref didn't allow the score to stand which denied Blaenavon a well deserved bonus point.