News

ABERGAVENNY 43 FAIRWATER 38 aet

Abergavenny entertained Fairwater Cardiff in the 3^rd round of the WRU Bowl Competition at Bailey Park on Saturday. The encounter promised to be the toughest challenge the claret and ambers have had all season, and so it proved.

The early exchanges were ferocious and fully committed before the Abergavenny forwards gained a foothold in the Fairwater half. Several phases of play were executed before the ball was given to Anthony Squire who found space in midfield for a clear run under the posts. Fairwater soon had a try of their own before the home forwards had their best spell of the game. Good possession and patient phase play resulted in tries for Dan Beavan and another for Squire before the dominant forwards rolled another maul over the line for Rhys Dawe to bag the points. Two conversions by Webster and a converted try by Fairwater resulted in a comfortable half time score of 24 - 12.

The second half began with Abergavenny continuing to play a fast and open game. The forwards once again drove well up field before releasing the backs, resulting in a score for winger Garin Price, then converted by Webster. At 31 – 12 Abergavenny should have closed the game out, but with the home scrum going backwards, Fairwater found they had good possession for their talented backs. They quickly took the game to Abergavenny resulting in ten minutes of mayhem resulting in three quick tries bringing the score to 31 – 31 with 10 minutes left.

At this point Rob Lothian and Nathan Harris were sent on to remedy the problems at scrum time, Nathan Thomas and Joe Symonds shored up a tiring pack and Nathan Bryne replaced Dan Smith in midfield. The crowd now got behind the home side creating a caldron of noise around the ground which added to the drama of this cup tie.

The scrum suddenly was going forward at a rate of knots and Abergavenny regained control of the game, scoring opportunities arose but none were taken leaving the final score at 31 – 31. With each side having scored five tries twenty minutes of extra time was needed.

Extra time began with the home side maintaining the control they had at the end of normal time. Patient build up and a strong run by Thomas drawing in defenders led to Nathan Bryne powering through midfield to score a converted try under the posts. This was followed by a well weighted kick by Webster putting Lloyd Holder in for a try in the second half of extra time giving a 12 point cushion. Fairwater were not finished they found space from deep, running the ball back at the home side in devastating fashion scoring under the posts.

There was no further time and a thrilling game of Rugby played by two committed sides had ended 43 – 38 sending Abergavenny into the 4^th round draw.

We return to league action against Garndiffaith on Nov 10^th at Bailey Park