Abergavenny's WRU National Bowl home quarter final match against Penygraig promised to be an exciting and tough match with a huge prize at stake, and it more than lived up to the expectations with Aber winning a close hard fought game in the dying minutes.
Coaches Simon williams and Nathan Thomas had a full squad to select from. Rob Lothian joined skipper Ieuan James and Jay Adams in the front row, Will Evans and Dan Horler were in the engine house and Josh Davies returned from injury at no 8 flanked by Dan Beavan and Rhys Dawe. Rhob Connick and Rhod Webster were at half back Jacob Buttler came in to partner Joe Evans in the centre Josh Parr was at full back with Nathan Byrne and Antony squires on the wings.
The game kicked off in front of a huge crowd with Aber playing up the slope with a strong wind behind them but it was the away side who had the better of the early exchanges keeping the ball and making the home side defend but not causing them too much trouble. Aber slowly worked them selves into the game and obtained a foothold in the Penygraig half and after a strong carry from winger Byrne flanker Rhys Dawe took an excellent line off him to split the defence and sprint 35 meters to score the opening try converted by Josh Parr 7-0 to Abergavenny.
From the restart Aber once again took the game to Penygraig and kept the away side under long periods of pressure and only desperate defence and a couple of handling errors prevented the home side increasing their lead. After keeping Penygraig pined in their own half for most of the second quarter of the game a speculative kick out of defence was misjudged by the home defence and allowed the away side a foothold on the Aber line which eventually resulted in a converted try to level the scores 7-7.
Once again the home side went back on the attack and were rewarded with two penalties the second kicked by Parr to give Aber a 10-7 lead a half time.
Matt Charles came on at prop at half time to tighten up a creaking scrum and the game to and froed with neither side getting any ascendency but it was the away side that made the first breakthrough scoring a converted try to take the lead for the first time in the match 10-14.
Abergavenny now rung the changes, Lewis Evans at scrum half Alex Howes in the back row. After a couple of driving line outs Howes broke down the blindside to find Lewis Evans in support to score in the corner to regain the lead 15-14. In true cup rugby fashion, back came Penygraig and after getting field position in Aber's half were awarded a difficult penalty which was very well converted by the Penygraig outside half to regain the lead for the away side 15-17.
The Abergavenny coaches now flooded on the replacements Nathan Thomas and Luke williams came on in the second row Gareth Williams at hooker and Sam Vaughan and Nathan Williams in the back three.
These changes seemed to galvanise the home side and they started to play with more zest and enthusiasm forcing the Penygraig side back into their own half. Time was ticking away and their defence was holding firm only for them to stray offside giving Aber a shot at goal to win the game. Nathan Williams, fresh from youth rugby, took the kick only for it to fall just short and with only four minutes remaining it looked like the game had gone, but this Abergavenny side would not lie down and once again attacked the Penygraig defence resulting in another offside penalty a further ten metres closer than the previous. Once again Nathan Williams stepped forward and calmly kicked the goal to put Aber in the lead with one minute to play 18-17.
Aber regained the ball from the restart and were awarded a penalty but from the ensuing line out Penygraig were awarded a very controversial penalty to give them one more chance at victory, but the home defence held firm to clinch a famous victory and a place in the semi finals. So, only more victory until the Principality Stadium.
Abergavenny rugby club would like to thank everybody for the tremendous support we received Saturday with a crowd estimated in the region of 600. Also, the mini rugby section for the guard of honour before the game. Many thanks to our president Mario van de Vyver who was the match sponsor and he awarded man of the match to Abergavenny no 8 Josh Davies.
Our semi final opponents are Nantgaredig from Camarthenshire and sit top of Division 3 West B. The game will be played at a neutral venue on the 30th March further details will be published once known.
Abers next game will be a league floodlit match at Bailey Park on Tuesday the 19th of March to RTB Ebbw Vale kick off 7.15.
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