Pembrokeshire Cup Quarter Final
Cardigan 28 Neyland 12
Cardigan warmed up nicely for their crunch top of the table clash with Pembroke this weekend with a convincing win over Neyland in the quarter final of the Pembrokeshire Cup.
This was sweet revenge for the Cardi’s following a narrow defeat away against the All Blacks a month ago in division three west and the biggest difference on this occasion was that the Ceredigion outfit were allowed to scrum effectively and take full advantage of their superiority up front without too much interference from the official in charge.
However it went extremely black for both players and supporters fifteen minutes into the game as one of the floodlights went out and this made life difficult especially in the far corner of the ground but to their credit the players decided to soldier on rather than abandon the game.
The All Blacks who had arrived with a couple of key players missing from their ranks, spun the ball about from the off and they took the lead when centre Adam Collins raced through in the darkness to touch down.
Powerful winger Wayne Parsons making his first start for almost five years charged his way over for a try to level matters following some deft skills from outside half Luke Rogers and some powerful carrying by hooker Bedwyr Davies and prop Tomos Evans and it was the latter who claimed the second Cardigan try when the powerful loose head darted over wide out after number eight Griffiths had made the initial break and Rogers converted impressively to put his team 14-5 ahead.
Skipper Llyr Griffiths claimed a try from a pushover scrum early on in the second half as the hosts forwards destroyed the Neyland scrum with the front five superiority forcing the All Blacks to live off scraps of possession and this was converted by Rogers but to their credit the visitors hit back when veteran Steve Martin took advantage of some woeful tackling by the Cardi’s to dive over for a soft try which was converted by Adam Cawley.
Cardigan though regrouped and brought on experienced back rower Gareth Clifford following an injury to Gethin Jones and he made an immediate impact with two storming runs and the second of these led to a try from open side Kieran Hurley who capped off another hard working display with the try that sealed the game. Rogers converted to put his team out of sight at 28-12.
The Cardi’s should really have put this game to bed well before the end as they were much better than their opponents and played some very smart rugby at times but some really poor first up tackling let the Pembrokeshire All Blacks off the hook.
Fly half Luke Rogers played with a great deal of authority and kicked cleverly to the corners and this was a far better ‘heads up’ performance by Colin Horscrofts’ team and they played far more of their rugby in the right areas of the field due to the accuracy of Rogers kicking rather than taking unnecessary risks in their own twenty two area when the game is tight.
Next up for Cardigan is a top of the table division three clash away at Pembroke this weekend and this tasty fixture promises to be a tense affair but the Cardi’s who were missing arguably their two most influential players in centre Emyr Harries and number eight Colin Davies who should return this week, are now starting to put it together and they will travel to Crickmarren in a confident mood.
