Saturday, October, 14th, 2017.
Ammanford 20 – 27 Maesteg Quins
WRU Division One
Pre-match proclamations of a large contingent of Premier status players featuring in mid-table Ammanford’s team proved unfounded.
Nevertheless, the hosts made early headway. Pressuring the Quins whose ball retention was not up to its usual standard, led to a penalty miss.
Near the end of the first quarter, the coal black and blood reds had found their feet. A twenty yards driving maul sped over the line with Scott Williams scoring.
Even if it wasn’t quite being used to its full potential, the Quins were winning good and plentiful possession. It was the kicking out of hand that appeared problematic for both teams, but for the Quins this facet of play was weak. Often punts proved nothing less than pinpoint passes back to the opposition.
A series of scrums were set on the Ammanford line. The first went forwards at a rate of knots before collapse. The second, lacking the cohesion of the first, was wheeled and reset. The third led to another penalty, so when the fourth regained its co-ordinated thrust and was impeded, the referee ran beneath the posts for a penalty try.
With all the inevitability of rain in Maesteg, an Ammanford comeback occurred. Quins lost the ball in attack, conceded a penalty and five minutes later full-back Jack Evans strolled in at the corner.
Despite overturning possession, Quins then conceded a penalty and were in trouble. The defence was finally stretched to breaking point and flanker Tom Davies dived over the top of a ruck to touchdown. Crucially, the score levelling point blank conversion was missed.
BLISTERING BACK-MOVEMENT
Early in the second half Quins’ forwards and backs combined. Aled Edwards made a long pass to Jack Picton who jinked and jived into the twenty-five. Passing back inside to Edwards who continued a supporting run, the centre gave a short pass to Ben Davies who was haring up on the inside. It seemed the diminutive half-back would top his already fine performance with a score.
Although touching the base of the post to score, the hitch to young 'Scratch' was the referee uncertainty about the grounding, but he deemed the tackle that throttled the scrum-half illegal and awarded a second penalty try.
Quins had the upper hand at this point. The game became less structured. Lewis Francis was a particularly effective defensive ‘pillar’ and Josh Mines ‘guard’ at rucks.
Andrew Healy received a card for his 150th match - it was yellow for his part in a brawl that broke out when Kieran Watkins was felled by another head high challenge. Dishing out more cards than Moonpig, the referee gave both home locks their temporary marching orders: one for the tackle; the other for dissent
An unquestionable ruck offside allowed Rhodri Davies to put a twelve points gap between the teams with his penalty.
Cwmafan based home No.8 Michael Owen saved his team many times and instigated attacks. One such attack from the back of a retreating scrum, when the hosts were down to thirteen raised questions about the Quins defending when Ammanford crossed the line with numbers to spare.
Ammanford were just a converted try away from levelling the scores. Then Ben Davies, Adam Hillier-Rees and Lewis Tutt made telling breaks to pin the hosts deep in their own half.
Driving a line-out, Andrew Healy marked his sesquicentennial appearance in a more positive fashion by scoring a try.
Once again Ammanford came within a score of the Quins when claiming a fourth try. If they had converted three of their six attempts at goal, this could have resulted in victory for the hosts instead of two bonus points in defeat.
The match went on and on. In an uncomfortable period the Quins didn’t want to lose their lead. As the clock ticked on to 4:20pm, proceedings were finally halted for another great bonus win.
Saturday sees a first versus third encounter in an inter borough fixture, when the Quins entertain old friends Tondu who are in a rich vein of form.
15. Geraint Evans 14. Jack Picton 13. Kieran Watkins 12. Aled Edwards
11. Alex Griffiths 10. Rhodri Davies (PG) 9. Ben Davies
1. Lewis Francis 2. Jay Ronan 3. Dean Ronan 4. Steven Williams (c)
5. Scott Williams (T) 6. Josh Mines 8. Andrew Healy (T) 7. Lewis Tutt
2 Penalty Tries
Replacements
16. Ioan Williams for L. Francis 17. Adam Hillier-Rees for A. Healy
18. Mark Watson for D. Ronan 19. James Dixon for G. Evans
20. Siôn King for A. Edwards
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