Brecon RFC

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SWALEC WRU National League Division 3 South East Saturday 2nd October 2010

Aberdare 38 - Brecon 16

The visit to Aberdare was always going to be a challenge. Both sides entered the game with three wins from their four starts during the season. After the heavy rain of Friday conditions were remarkably kind and contributed to what was a very good match. While the final score appears to suggest that Aberdare were runaway winners this was far from the truth. At one stage in the first half Aberdare established a 17 points to six lead but Brecon fought back. When after ten minutes of the second half Dan Edwards slotted a penalty the teams were separated by only a single point at 17 points to 16. The momentum was now in Brecon’s favour but suddenly the whole character of the game was changed.

Attacking on the home 22, prop Karl Stevenson proved to be a little overeager as he drove over at a ruck and fell to the ground. He also fell foul of the referee and received his marching orders. This was quickly followed by the dismissal of wing Ross Parry when the referee decided that his attempted interception was a deliberate attempt to knock the ball down. He also was sent to the bin. In a tight game the sudden loss of two players proved too much for Brecon to cope with.

Within no time the whole nature of the game changed. Brecon were forced to defend and try to hang on for a critical period while they were down to thirteen men. For a while it looked as if Brecon could hold on but once one score came then others were soon to follow.

The build up to the first of a series of scores followed the same pattern as the home sides two in the first half. Following penalties near half way, experienced outside half Stephen Roberts put in a long and accurate kick into touch near the corner. Aberdare drove first at the depleted Brecon pack and then broke away. A number of pop passes out of the tackle allowed excellent open side flanker, Chris Watts, to claim the try.

The next score was cruel as following a typical direct run from centre Alun Davies, winger Ben Bowen intercepted and against a depleted defence created the opportunity for scrum half Gavin Heck to score.

By the time Ross Parry returned to the field the game was lost and Aberdare hammered the nails into the coffin with a brilliant team try scored by full back Jason Daniels. Although Brecon made a spirited response in the last minutes of the game they were forced to accept that they were well beaten.

The first half hardly suggested that such a result was the likely outcome. Brecon scored first with a Dan Edwards penalty and could have scored more. Aberdare hit back with a try of their own but Edwards regained the lead with his second penalty. Brecon then fell behind once again after gifting a very soft try. On the Brecon 22 centre Gareth Jablonski received a pass when he was at a complete standstill. The defence rushed at him and a simple step put him past everyone and he scored under the posts.

With half time approaching Brecon got back into contention with an excellent try of their own. They worked their way down into the home 22. Excellent Wyn Davies won the line out and prop Steve Jackson peeled around the tail. On contact he offloaded to Alan Taylor who also made ground before putting Alun Davies through on a crashing try scoring run. Dan Edwards struck the conversion beautifully and set up what should have been a close and tense second half. Sadly apart from the early competitiveness the game fell away for Brecon allowing Aberdare to make progress to the top of the league.

Next week Brecon have the opportunity of bouncing back with a home fixture against Taffs Well. They have done that once already this season and they will undoubtedly be looking for a repeat performance.