Fixture

Risca RFC | 1st Team

14 - 10

Abergavenny RFC | 1st Team

Rhodri Webster

1 Conversion

1 Penalty

nathan harris

1 Try

Match Report

29 April 2014 / Team News

Aber battle at Risca

On a cold and wet night Abergavenny travelled to promotion chasing Risca. Many first choice players were unavailable but the young Abergavenny side that took the field put in a tremendous performance. Nathan Harris returned from maternity leave to join Ieuan James and Frank James in the front row, youth team player Ewan Mullins joined Josh Davies in the second row, and the back row made up of CJ Woodhouse, Josh Hitchman and Rudi Lewis. James Spooner returned to partner Rhodri Webster at half back, Stuart Davies and Gareth Beavan made up the centre partnership and Lloyd Holder came in the wing to join Dan Dunmore and Rob Morgan. Risca started the game like a side determined to gain maximum points from this fixture, they kept the ball for numerous phases of play and after about 5 minutes of continuous pressure scored a converted try to give them a 7-0 lead. The home side continued to put Abergavenny under pressure and things looked ominous for Abergavenny and only determined defence stopped Risca from going further ahead. As the game went on Abergavenny’s young side seemed to grow in confidence and started to play some good rugby themselves. After sustained pressure and a strong break from scrum half James Spooner prop Nathan Harris forced his way over for a well-deserved try, converted by Rhodri Webster to leave the score 7-7. Before half time Abergavenny lost two of its more experienced players Stuart Davies and Josh Hitchman to injury and these were replace by Quins captain Keiron Skinner and Dan Beavan. The home side were now visibly rattled as this young Abergavenny side tore into them and knocked back every attack they put together. From the restart Aber were soon down to 14 men when one of the forwards was yellow carded for an early challenge. Risca failed to take advantage of this ten minute period and when Aber were back to full strength a terrific break from CJ Woodhouse carried on by Rudi Lewis should have led to a try for Abergavenny but Risca were penalised for killing the ball and from the resulting penalty put Abergavenny into a 10-7 lead. Risca now threw everything into attack and Abergavenny were now under serious pressure for long periods of time. With 8 minutes to go Risca had several 5 metre scrums and eventually they broke Abergavenny’s defence for the scrum half to score a converted try to leave the final score 14-10 to Risca. Despite this loss Abergavenny could take great credit from this performance and a special thanks goes to the other two substitutes Owen Williams who came out of retirement and Ryan Morgan who whilst still injured still sat on the bench.

Players

Outsidehalf: Rhodri Webster
Tighthead: nathan harris

Gallery