Division 1 West
Crymych 3 Aberystwyth 15
Aberystwyth came up trumps in the derby clash at Parc Lloyd Thomas by two tries to nil but the Preselimen will look back at some golden opportunities when they should have also crossed the whitewash.
The visitors were the best team on the day and fully deserved their win as crucially they took their chances and their more direct approach through dynamic ball carriers in the shape of skipper and number eight Lee ‘Truck’ Evans ,Lee Gower and Rob Parry served them well.
The torrential rain that poured on to the pitch just prior to this game made life very difficult and Crymych were never really able to play their high tempo, high risk handling game as the ball was knocked on far too often, but they will have been disappointed not to cross for at least a try.
The game was very closely contested throughout, with territory and possession evenly shared and Crymych started brightly and forced a number of scrums deep in the visitors’ half but good clearance kicks from the base of the scrum by No 9 Ifan Thomas and his brother Llyr at outside half kept the home side out.
Aber eventually made their way back up the field towards the changing room corner and the ball was fed out to centre Tom Evans and although he was tackled he managed to offload superbly to Llyr Thomas who stormed up on the outside to score out wide. Thomas then converted his own try to give the visitors a 7-0 advantage after ten minutes.
The Ceredigion men increased their lead when the ball was initially taken up by skipper Evans and from a series of powerful drives and rucks by the forwards, scrum half Llyr Thomas threw out a long pass to full back Matthew Jacobs who burst through before feeding to powerful second row Rob Parry who barged his way over.
Crymych came storming back and they put Aber under intense pressure but they were thwarted by a series of handling errors and crucial turnovers with the try line in sight. The Preselimen should have scored on the half hour mark but centre Carwyn Phillips, who carried well, could not quite hold on to the ball with the line at his mercy with former Cardigan centre Marcus Castle on his shoulder. Crymych spent the remainder of the half camped in opposition territory but they were unable to make this pay.
The visitors threatened to take the game away from the opposition in the final quarter as they started to get an edge at the scrum and the heavy conditions played into their hands with their powerful ball carriers taking the short route up the guts but the only other score of the second half was a penalty from Llyr Thomas which increased the visitors lead to 15-3 and an advantage that never really looked like being threatened.
A hard fought contest as usual between these cross border rivals but not the entertaining one that was eagerly awaited as the weather put paid to that. Centre Phillips worked tirelessly for the hosts and scrum half Rhys Davies kept a cool head under pressure as did number eight Guto Davies who made a number of excellent bursts from the base of the scrum. Young fly half Ifan Phillips showed once again that he is a player of great promise and full back Gavin Thomas fielded the ball well in tricky conditions.
This weekend Crymych entertain Gorseinon and Aberystwyth are at Gowerton.