BONUS WIN FOR CARDS

Division 3 west A.

St Davids 8 Cardigan 26

Cardigan enjoyed a successful trip to St Davids as expected but they were made to work very hard against a Saints outfit that had only won two games all season.

The result of this fixture was never really in any doubt once the visitors took a foothold in the game but the Cardigan coaches will have been bitterly disappointed with a lack of discipline late on which saw the production of two red cards shown to a couple of their youngest players.

It was the hosts though who opened the scoring when centre Matt Mcleod slotted over a penalty and he and his team made good use of the strong wind advantage and kicked into the corners but they were unable to make any impression on the scoreboard.

 

Cardigan gradually worked their way into the game through some powerful ball carrying by their forwards in the shape of number eight Llyr Griffiths, second row Dean Harries, prop Will Brice and hooker Luke Palmer Davies and they hit back with a try. Winger Casey Walters the former Cardigan Town goal keeper who has shown some promise in recent weeks powered his way over following good work from stand off Llyr Jones and centre Emyr Harries who converted the score.

And it was centre Harries who added a second try soon afterwards when he burst through the Saints defence from 20 metres out before he upgraded the touchdown with the extras.

St Davids bounced back and enjoyed a purple patch but they were held out by some fierce tackling from the likes of centres Harries and Will Delve, flanker Gareth Clifford, prop Ben Hughes and second row Sion Phillips. The Saints eventually crossed the whitewash but a try from number eight Anthony Davies was ruled out for an infringement.

There was little to choose between the teams in the second half despite a healthy Cardigan lead but with twelve minutes left the visitors were reduced to 14 men when hooker Luke Palmer-Davies was red-carded for foul play and St Davids sensed a winning opportunity. However it was the visitors who finished the stronger and they pulled further ahead when they were awarded a penalty try following a succession of scrum offences and they sealed the win and bonus point when Clifford sneaked over to put his team 26-3 ahead.

Cardigan lost second row Sion Phillips to another red card offence in the dying minutes and this allowed the opposition back into the game and some slick handling saw young winger Luke Brooks cross for an excellent try to complete the scoring.