Fixture

 The opening game of the new year at Parc de Pugh came with a lot of pressure on the home side. Brecon’s last league match, on 16^th of December, ended with their first defeat of the season. The loss of that match, combined with the loss of a home record stretching back to 8^th May 2019, undoubtedly hurt the side. Making matters worse was the fact that team preparations for the game had been disrupted by Christmas and the very wet weather which hampered training during the three-week break. The game was also doubly important as it was the first match of a testing run of fixtures with the next three matches likely to have a huge impact on the outcome of the season. First Brecon face Bonymaen, away, next Saturday, before travelling to Bedwas for a quarter final Cup match, followed by a visit to the home of unbeaten, league leaders, Narberth. With that as the background Brecon would have wanted to start their match well against Trebanos and to go on to secure a confidence building bonus point win. That scenario was blown out of the water within four minutes. Having started promisingly Brecon conceded a penalty and territory. Trebanos attacked for the first time and accomplished outside half Rhys Harris put through a speculative grubber kick. There seemed to be no danger until full back Geraint Walsh attempted to gather the ball. A wicked bounce meant the ball evaded him and right wing Sam Davies pounced to score with Harris converting brilliantly from the touch line, a feat that he repeated later in the game with his four from four conversion attempts. Hardly the start that Brecon wanted. However, they responded well and deservedly earned the bonus point win they sought, with a 49 points to 28 victory

The match will certainly have thrown up a number of negatives as well as a lot of positives when the coaching team of Dale McIntosh, Gavin Dacey and Owen Sheppeard begin their preparations for the testing remainder of January. The first of the negatives was that Brecon sustained two unwelcomed injuries. Captain Alwyn Lee was forced off early in the game following a head injury, then into the final quarter No 8 Logan McIntosh was helped off the field with an ankle injury. Both players will be missed if they are out of the game for some time.

Another negative was obviously the disappointing start where, almost from the kick off, they found themselves behind. Allied to that was that fact that having battled back well and scored three converted tries they allowed Trebanos back into the game with the last play of the first half. A similar lapse occurred towards the end of the game when having built a commanding lead Trebanos hit back with two tries of their own. By then the game was won and to be fair, Trebanos deserved to take something out of the game as they claimed their bonus point fourth try. Another feature that will be looked at will be the line out. For a large part it functioned very well and supplied quality ball, but on a number of occasions, when they were in good attacking positions, they lost the line out on their throw. This is surely something they can not afford to do in tighter games.

On the positive side Brecon will have been pleased with the way they responded to the early setback. Seven tries were scored and all were converted, some from wide angles, by Dion McIntosh. They will also have been pleased with their clinical finishing and the quality of the build up to most of the tries.

There were also some very good individual performances. Wing Sam Jones looked sharp and dangerous whenever he had the ball in hand and he worked hard to ensure that he was involved throughout the game. He claimed two tries, the first of which was an individual effort when he latched onto a loose kick and weaved past two defenders to open Brecon’s score. He was set up brilliantly for his second when Geraint Walsh attacked down a narrow channel. He drew two defenders and then put Jones away for his second. Another player who scored a brace of tries was centre Tomos Davies. He deserved his success for an excellent all round game where his defensive play was exemplary and his linking work in attack was fluent and accurate. His first try in the first half came after some good work by the forwards drew the defence and from an offload near the try line he scored. His second was the opening try of the second half. For this score again the forwards deserved the credit for the build-up. Off a line out on Trebanos’ ten metre line the set up a monstrous maul which carried them to the five-metre line. There the maul was illegally pulled down and from the penalty, prop Owain James and flanker Matthew Williams went close. Both players had impressive games. Finally, the ball came to Davies and he powered over.

The next scorer was scrum half Carl Blacker. He too had a good game. His distribution was excellent and his box kicking allowed the chasers to challenge for the ball. For his try he was the finisher after a storming run from excellent hooker Aneurin James. He was held just short and Blacker sniped over.

Flanker Osian Davies was Brecon’s fifth scorer. Always in the thick of things and often the provider this time he finished with a powerful drive to the line after some good play starting with an Ollie Lewis run and carried on by Richie Davies, Logan McIntosh and Geraint Powell before Osian finished. Apart from this assist, second row Geraint Powell had an excellent game at the line out, with ball in hand and in defence.

In the closing period of the game Brecon lost some of their potency and Trebanos scored an excellent try when a Rhys Harris loop created space for winger Sam Davies to score his second. Brecon did hit back before the final Trebanos try when Osian Davies gave winger Rhys Davies just a glimmer of a chance. Davies carved through the defence with a step in then out to score under the posts.

A seven try bonus point victory with plenty to work on as Brecon face the prospect of an interesting and exciting few weeks. They must embrace the challenge and view it as a great opportunity to achieve something special.