Fixture

On a beautiful early spring day with a blustery wind in their faces Neyland started proceedings in this penultimate match of the season for both sides and from a penalty awarded in the first play of the match the visitors opened their account to lead by three points.

After a very uncertain opening period the home nerves were settled a little by a try for tight head prop Gareth Jones, converted by Geraint Jones and despite the team continuing to concede far too many penalties, a try for loose head prop Andrew Howells, again converted by Jones, stretched the lead to 11 points.

Saints continued to struggle to gain any ascendency in general play and down the blind side, following a scrum on the home side’s 22, the visitor’s scrum half shrugged off three ineffective tackles to score in the corner to close the gap to six points.

Number 8 Tom Rees finished off good work from Saints forwards to cross for the third try for the home side and with another conversion from Jones the half time score looked a lot healthier at 21 points to 8 but by no means any room for complacency!

Immediately after the break a knock on, when a score looked certain, saved further blushes for Saints and virtually from the restart scrum half Llyr Ebsworth (pictured) scored an excellent try, successfully converted by Jones again, to secure the bonus point and the comfort of some breathing space at last!

Neyland were clearly deflated by this turn of events after all their valiant efforts to keep them in the game and with the home pack beginning to dominate, tries in rapid succession from Lee Glanville, a second for Tom Rees, Michael Georgiau, captain Mathew Lewis and finally Carwyn Davies produced the final score of 59 points to 8.

Ultimately a good day for the home side although the visitors contributed to a good contest and for the most part there was very little in it and the unfortunate incident in the final play of the day leading to two red cards was probably caused mainly by frustration and perhaps best forgotten and thoughts will now be focussed on the final match and arguably title decider of the season next week at home to Cardigan!