Brecon RFC

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SWALEC WRU Plate Round 1 Saturday 31st October 2009

Kenfig Hill 41 - Brecon 16

Brecon dropped out of the SWALEC WRU Plate Competition after a disappointing performance at Kenfig Hill. There can be no disguising the fact that little satisfaction can have been gleaned from a match in which they were comprehensively beaten.

Brecon started quite well and took an early lead from a Dan Edwards penalty. This followed some good forward driving play. In fact throughout the first half Brecon’s forward drives close to the fringes were effective and kept Brecon in the game. Gareth Owens, Andrew Davies and Ceri Morgan all featured regularly and gained yards for their team. With Andrew Davies making his first start of the season in the front row the scrum which has been under some pressure in recent weeks suddenly looked solid and provided a good platform. Unfortunately the line out, which has been effective all season, suddenly misfired. While Kenfig benefitted from a stream of quality ball at this phase, Brecon’s organisation and accuracy deserted them.

Another major contributing factor in this defeat was that Brecon lost confidence. After Ray Evans levelled the scores with a penalty, Kenfig showed that they possessed quality in midfield and the pairing of centres Nicky Morgan and Ian Williams regularly punched holes. By contrast Brecon’s midfield attacks were relatively easily stifled and as time went on it became obvious that Brecon’s attack was laboured and a shadow of the high tempo accurate attack that was a feature of their play at the start of the season.

Although Brecon held out for a long time even when they went a man down after Eurin Morgan was sin binned having been forced to deliberately knock the ball on in order to prevent a try scoring opportunity. Kenfig were confident enough to go for position rather than kick the penalty but at this stage Brecon’s defence was resilient and repulsed the attack.

When inevitably Kenfig did score it came from an unlikely position. With Seb Evans and Ed Lewis working hard the forwards drove their way out of defence and up to half way. However, the ball was stolen at the breakdown. With Brecon’s defence disorganised the opposition took their chance brilliantly and with swift hands they released wing Alex Pearce who scored in the corner.

In spite of the reverse Brecon bounced back and regained the lead. They narrowed the gap with a second Edwards' penalty after wing Aled Smith helped to gain a foothold deep in home territory. Aled who had a very good game on his return to the 1st XV, was twice involved in the build up. First he made a great catch in defence and followed his kick ahead to pin the opposition down in their own half. Then he chased a neat Huw Baldwin, kick made the tackle and turned the ball over. From the quick ball Dan Edwards dropped a neat goal.

With Eurin Morgan returning to the fray and the game nearing half time there was little sign of what was to come. Suddenly Brecon’s defence was split as Ian Williams broke through and popped a try scoring -pass out of the final tackle to his centre partner Rhodri Clark. Then on the stroke of half time Brecon gave away a penalty just outside their 22. Kenfig Hill again elected to kick to touch and from a line out 5 metres out the pack drove over for a try which Evans converted.

The second half was a half to forget for Brecon and their loyal contingent of supporters. They conceded three more tries. Two of those came from embarrassing failures to deal with kicks ahead. The only consolation was that they recorded a try of their own. From a driving maul near the home try line the Brecon pack drove over for second row Seb Evans to claim the score. Dan Edwards converted but the score hardly eased the obvious disappointment that was apparent in the Brecon changing room after the match.