Division 3 West A
Milford 22 Cardigan 0
Any slim hopes that Cardigan and their supporters had of sneaking promotion ahead of leaders St Clears were finally put to bed at the Observatory Ground when they were well beaten by the Mariners.
The Cardi’s needed at least a bonus point victory to have any chance of overtaking long time leaders St Clears but they never looked like winning this game and will have to settle for another year playing in the basement.
There was very little in this game in the opening quarter but Milford looked the more dangerous side and they eventually broke through when Cardigan were robbed of possession and a break by Lee Riley led to a try from second row Archie Smithies who sprinted in from some distance. Craig Barnett added the extras and Milford led 7-0 at the break.
Cardigan went further behind after the interval when Barnett broke and the ball was fed out to young flanker Ryan Mansell who cut through for an unconverted try.
Prop Adam Rees barged his way over for the third try and the Mariners finished the Cardi’s off with the bonus point try when right winger Jimmy Thomas, waltzed through some poor defending and Barnett added the conversion from in front of the posts to round off a well deserved victory and help his team gain revenge for a loss at the King George earlier in the season.
This defeat means that St Clears are the league champions and they will be promoted.
Coach Colin Horscroft was missing a number of key players for a variety of reasons and he simply did not have a team good enough to do the job on the day but the most disappointing statistic was his teams inability to cross the whitewash for the third game in a row.
The Gollop Stand faithful will be disappointed at the failure of their side to secure promotion but the table never lies and the brutal truth is that Cardigan were not quite good enough over the season and arguably would not have been strong enough to make any impact in division two unless they were to get an injection of fresh faces.
The defeat away at Neyland earlier in the season was a key factor as it was always going to be a very tight race for the title between the top three. Cardigan face a tricky couple of years ahead of them as there are four or five senior players coming to the end of their careers and they will take some replacing if they decide to hang up their boots.
However there are a few young players who have blossomed this year including the likes of Llyr Jones, Aaron Evans, Alun Jenkins, Ben Hughes, Tomos Evans, Dafydd Watkins and the returning Luke Rogers and Cardigan will be in the top three again next season.
