Brecon RFC

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Brecon
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SWALEC WRU League Division 3 South East 28th February 2009

Brecon 17 - Treorchy 20

Treorchy were the visitors to Parc-de-Pugh on Saturday in a replay of the match from early December which was abandoned as a result of a lengthy delay because of a neck injury sustained by young scrum half Rob Price. Thankfully, he has made a full recovery and was able to take his place on the bench for this match.

The visitors are currently in second place in the league and pushing for promotion, having only lost once this season to current leaders Llantwit Fadre, and it was them who got off to the better start. A Brecon error saw quick turnover ball passed wide by Treorchy and following some good handling by their backs, winger Robert Davies sped over in the corner for an unconverted try. Treorchy’s early dominance also resulted in a penalty kick after Brecon were penalised for offside and which saw them fall 8-0 behind.

Brecon then appeared to get themselves into gear and a good forward charge led by captain Andrew Davies, Scott Edwards and Owen Davies saw Treorchy infringe at a ruck and Dan Edwards slotted over a well struck penalty. A further penalty by Edwards closed the gap even further which was followed up by the try of the match. The visitors’ lineout was stolen on the halfway by Brecon and the ball shipped quickly to right wing Eurin Morgan who showed some excellent footwork and speed to stand up his opposite winger to take play into the visitors 22. He then drew the full-back and gave an inside pass to the supporting Owen Morgan who raced over to the delight of the home team and supporters. The conversion was missed, but Brecon had recovered superbly to lead 11-8 following 20 minutes of riveting rugby. Both teams exchanged penalties in the final quarter of the first half as the home side began to take control of the contact area, and their committed defence snuffed out any danger posed by the visitors. However on the stroke of half time and the referee indicating the last play of the half, Treorchy’s outside half Celyn Ashton struck a penalty after Brecon were penalised for going off their feet at a ruck, to take the teams into the break level at 14 all.

The second half saw Brecon take the game to the visitors, with the tackle and ruck area certainly not for the faint hearted, and this left some of the Treorchy players dazed and bruised on more than one occasion! Despite the onslaught, Treorchy’s defence held firm and Brecon could not turn this pressure into points. As the clocked ticked away, it wasn’t until the 70th minute that Brecon managed to take the lead as Dan Edwards slotted his fourth successful penalty of the afternoon. It came after a spell of pressure from the visitors was thwarted by the excellent home defence, who then broke up field to be awarded the penalty after Treorchy handled at a ruck. However, Treorchy responded to level the scores within a minute as the ref awarded the visitors a penalty from the restart.
Both sides appeared edgy as the final whistle approached, but a huge clearance kick by Ashton forced Brecon back into their 22. From the resulting lineout, the home side were caught offside and the ever reliant Ashton kicked the penalty to edge the visitors into the lead at 20-17 in an epic encounter.
There was time remaining for Brecon to throw a final attack at the visitors and after a series of good phases, play was down into the Treorchy 22. However, Brecon were penalised for holding on in the tackle during the last play of the match and were denied the chance of stealing the win, much to the disappointment of the home team and the large local support alike.

A draw would have been a fair result for this match, which was a fine advert for Division 3 rugby. However it was not to be. The quality and standard of the rugby was a credit to both sides and the excellent referee Phil Harrhy commented that it was the best match he had officiated in for quite a number of years.

Brecon must now carry this standard into the remainder of the season and all the players can look back at this performance with pride and will be relishing the visit of Old Illtydians from Cardiff to Parc-de- Pugh next Saturday, March 7th in their next league encounter.