Fixture

Senghenydd RFC | 1st Team 36 - 31 Brecon RFC | 1st Team
Gari Davies
1 Try
Eifion Jones
1 Try
Jake Mitchell Newman
4 Conversion
1 Penalty
Dan Edwards
1 Try
Jonathan James
1 Try

Match Report
03 April 2016 / Team News

Senghenydd 36 - Brecon 31

The final scenes at the Welfare Ground, Senghenydd told the story of the day. The Brecon team stood dejectedly and in silence in the middle of the field while the home team noisily raced off the pitch and into the changing rooms to start their celebrations. Senghenydd had fought back brilliantly to steal the win with the last move of the match and deserved the rewards for their never say die effort. Brecon must have looked at the result as an opportunity wasted, an opportunity to put themselves clear of even the remote possibility of relegation, an opportunity to move into the final group of matches with confidence and an opportunity to enjoy a five point victory. Instead they had to be satisfied with a bonus point after scoring four tries and one for being within seven points of the victors.

Such a result never seemed to be even a remote possibility in the opening exchanges of the game. Brecon completely dominated. Their scrum regularly drove Senghenydd off the ball and they made life difficult for the home team at the line out. With a wind at their backs the game was played exclusively in the home 22. Twice Brecon’s scrum threatened to drive their opponents over the line for a try only for them to make small errors before they finally opened the scoring. When that try came it was well deserved. Once again Brecon drove Senghenydd off their own ball. No 8 Ewan Williams went blind, linked with his backs and Gari Davies crossed for a try which Jake Newman converted.

It certainly didn’t appear that the opening flattered to deceive as Brecon quickly returned to the home 22. Some intricate handling moves looked like creating a further score and when Gari Davies was brought down only a few metres short wide on the left it certainly felt that a try was coming. It was; but not at the Senghenydd end of the field. As the ball squirted out from the breakdown into a narrow gap near the touchline so the only player to spot the ball was the home right wing. He picked up and raced away covering the full 100metres totally unimpeded. The conversion into the wind failed but Brecon were served a warning that they failed heed.  

So dominant had they been in the early exchanges that they consciously or unconsciously decided that they could win this game playing a flowing brand of rugby, ignoring both their strengths and the elements. A pragmatic approach would have been to keep the ball in the opposition half by using the wind and then to strangle the life out of their opponents with their dominant scrum and line out. Instead they decided they would run almost from anywhere.

When they were caught on their own ten metre line and penalised at the breakdown they were slow to react to a quickly taken penalty. The Senghenydd backs made the most of the disorganised defence and swept the ball first to the right and then left before scoring in the corner. This second set back surely rammed the lesson home.

To some extent and for a short time, the lesson seemed to have been learned with Jake Newman beginning to put the ball into space behind the home defensive line. This pattern of play proved to be successful first when a lovely flat pass put Eifion Jones through for a try under the posts and then when Jonathan James barged his way over from short range. With Newman converting both scores Brecon built an eleven point lead.

With this pattern of play being so productive it was something of a surprise to see Brecon revert back to their run from everywhere approach when the wind had strengthened at their backs. A number of times they were worryingly caught in a defensive situation but they got away with it and in fact created a beautiful try. Off their advancing scrum Ewan Williams broke down the narrow side before moving the ball on to scrum half Daniel Edwards. He exchanged passes with right wing Joey Morgan before the final pass put him away and clear allowing him to score under the posts. The Newman conversion was a formality and Brecon now had an 18 point lead and a try scoring bonus point in the bag. That in itself would have been a satisfactory result for the first half as the lead would have been sufficient to survive a second half facing the wind.

On a day when nothing seemed to go to plan Brecon conceded a critical soft try just before half time. The kick off failed to go ten metres then they gave away a penalty. Having regained possession they decided to run out of defence. On their ten metre line wing Joey Morgan was caught and support was slow to arrive. Senghenydd snaffled the loose ball and their left wing sprinted through some weak, disorganised defence to score a try which was converted and reduced their half time arrears to 11 points.

Facing a now strong wind with just an eleven point advantage was never going to be easy but that task was made even more difficult when scrums became uncontested, taking away one of Brecon’s strengths. Brecon also continued to believe that they could run out of defence and within the first minute of the half that almost proved disastrous. It wasn’t long, however, before Senghenydd reduced the arrears. The home scrum half spotted that the defence had fanned out and left a gap on the fringe of a ruck. He scampered through the hole and linked with his centre, who scored a try which was converted.

With the gap now only four points Brecon responded well. They gained a foothold in Senghenydd territory, earned a penalty which Jake Newman struck beautifully through the middle of the uprights. The score gave them some hope but they lost the services of centre Eifion Jones through injury. The loss was perhaps more critical than at first imagined. Brecon battled hard but the disorganised back line was now under pressure particularly when they also lost the services of wing Joey Morgan and captain Dafydd Thomas who was shown a yellow card. Inevitably Senghenydd capitalised when their accomplished number 13 cut through the middle and scored in the corner leaving the home team just two points adrift.

The last ten minutes was always going to be hard but Brecon kept their opponents away from the danger area and could have made even more of their efforts had they not lost a critical attacking lineout on their own throw, probably the first such loss of the afternoon. Senghenydd worked their way up-field and with the last play of the afternoon gave their right wing just enough space to squeeze in at the corner. The brilliantly struck conversion was academic. The game was lost and Brecon left the Welfare Ground downhearted but with the hope that they can pull together in training during the next few weeks in order to eradicate the errors which cost them the game.  

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