WRU Division 3 west
Cardigan 22 Tregaron 5
Cardigan completed a double over their Ceredigion rivals in a muddy battle on the King George that spilled over into a mass brawl in the second half more reminiscent of the wild west.
There had been plenty of niggle all the way through this stop start affair with the heavy conditions making life difficult and a succession of handling errors prevented either side from gaining any real momentum especially in the opening half.
The deadlock was eventually broken when hard working second row Sion Phillips carried the ball over from a well executed driving maul and this was converted by skipper and centre Emyr Harries but this was one of the few Cardigan visits into the opposition twenty two metre area.
Harries slotted over a penalty after the break to take his team 10-0 ahead and this was followed by a smart try which was eventually claimed by centre William Delve. Experienced second row Dylan ‘Rambo’ Davies started things off with a steal from a ruck on the half way and some excellent interpassing allowed Delve to run in unopposed. Harries converted to put Cardigan almost out of sight.
Tregaron came back strongly and used their pace to cause the hosts a few problems and they ran in for a try when right winger Iwan Wyn-Rees sliced open the Cardigan midfield and crossed for an unconverted try.
Cardigan dominated both territory and possession for long periods and they responded with their third try scored by back rower Marcus Castle. Full back and man of the match John Lumb initiated this score when he ran from deep and beat three defenders before slipping the ball to outside half Tom Dunn and his quick hands set up Castle for a touchdown to make it 22-5.
Play was then held up as fists came flying in from all directions and referee Mr Rhidian Crompton singled out Cardigan number eight Dan Evans as the culprit when at least ten others could have been asked to leave the field. Evans was shown a yellow which raised a few eyebrows but this punch up seemed to stir up the opposition as they enjoyed a purple patch late on and were unlucky not to score a second try. However Cardigan defended stoically through the likes of Luke Palmer Davies, replacement Gareth Clifford, Castle, Will Brice and Ben Hughes to keep them out before referee Crompton blew up for no time.