WRU Division 3 west A
Cardigan 26 Milford Haven 27
Cardigan produced a fantastic comeback before they were eventually edged out by promotion favourites Milford Haven in a thriller at the King George field.
The Cardi’s looked dead and buried at the break with the scoreboard looking very bleak at 22-0 and seemingly little hope of a fightback with the hosts having trudged into the dressing room looking a disconsolate bunch.
However it all changed after the oranges as Cardigan, superbly led by hard hitting skipper Emyr Harries produced one of the most exciting halves of rugby for some time and they looked likely winners with just a few minutes to go.
The Mariners who have been in good form of late started well and destroyed the home scrum and went ahead with a penalty from scrum half Dan McLelland and a try soon followed when centre Dan Jenkins finished off a slick move under the posts and McLelland upgraded the score to put his team 10-0 ahead.
Jenkins ran through for his second soon afterwards following a charge down and when stand off Jamie Lewis made it three tries to nil a cricket score looked on the cards with the visitors 22-0 following the conversion from McLelland.
Cardigan though came back strongly with hooker Luke Palmer Davies and number eight Llyr Griffiths taking the ball up aggressively and the outstanding number two was unlucky not to score a try in the clubhouse corner.
The hosts took their time at the break and left the Mariners waiting and they came out of their blocks on fire and played with far more aggression and much improved line speed and they were quickly rewarded when some brilliant work by loose head prop Richard Jones and good hands from back rower Griffiths put winger Sion Hughes over the try line. Centre Harries then slotted over a superb conversion from the touchline to stir up some passion in the Gollop Stand.
Impressive young scrum half Owain Rees added to the excitement shortly afterwards when he was put in for a try by number eight Griffiths who broke from a scrum that was now far more solid and he timed his pass to perfection and another brilliant touchline conversion from Harries reduced the deficit to just eight points.
The home coaches brought on experienced former skipper Dylan Rambo Davies and his presence had an immediate effect and he brought a harder edge to the proceedings and Cardigan were dominant. Milford though hit back with a try from second row Ben Groves after his colleagues cleverly switched play down the blind side to put his team further ahead at 27-14.
The Cardi’s though came back strongly with skipper Harries inspirational with his huge hits in the tackle and some big hard yards and this go forward brought in the likes of blind side Dan Evans, open side Osian Rees, second row Dean Harries and prop Jones on the carry and it came as no surprise when Cardigan crossed for their third try when Hughes went over in the corner following another clean pick up and go from number eight Griffiths. Unfortunately for the home team the touch line conversion from Harries was just a wide, but with the score at 27-19 this set up a very tense finale.
Cardigan were on top at this stage and they added their fourth try with just two minutes to go when skipper Harries was last up from a driving maul to claim a well deserved try and his brilliant conversion put his team within a point of a mariners outfit that were desperate for the final whistle to be sounded as they were blowing hard.
Then in a dramatic twist Cardigan intercepted the ball from a Milford knock on near the half way line and centre Harries broke away cleanly and had three players on his outside and a winning try looked a certainty. However referee Josef Rees called the players back claiming that the ball receiver had been in front of play at the time he collected the pass. This was as marginal as they come and the Mariners had not even protested as the action carried on. On another day Cardigan would have touched down and could well have won.
Harries and his team mounted one final charge but Milford to their credit managed to turn the ball over and they cleared the danger to the sound of the final whistle to emerge narrow winners by 27-26.
This was a heart warming performance from the young Cardigan team with teenage hooker Palmer Davies the Sportsline man of the match and having a fine game along with diminuative young scrum half Rees who never took a backward step.Lightweight second row Sion Phillips also impressed. Cardigan though could do with an old fashioned minder as some teams are getting away with far too much. Player coach Davies needs to get back into the fray as soon as he is fit again as there is plenty of promise in this young team but it needs a bit more steel.
Milford as expected were a polished all round outfit who really should have put this game to bed and they probably thought they had done enough at the break. They are a difficult team to beat and impressive with the ball in hand and will take some stopping.
