Llandovery Match Report

 Llandovery take the four points

Match report by Alex Kinsella-Evans

Ebbw come away from Church Bank with a losing bonus point after an uncharacteristic performance from Jason Strange`s side.

Straight from the kick-off the home side were on the front foot after the Steelmen’s number eight Ryan Jenkins knocked the ball on to give the home side a scrum on Ebbw’s twenty-two. However, the passage of play came to nothing. 

With numerous penalties being awarded to both sides, the Drovers took the lead through the boot of full back Jack Maynard, after they were awarded a penalty from the scrum with fifteen minutes gone.

The Steelmen hit back from a scrum in the home sides half, when the ball made its way to outside centre Ethan Phillips, who sliced through the home defence at pace to score a very well taken try. However, Lloyd missed the conversion. 

With Llandovery having most of the ball, a neat chip over the top led to the home sides winger Aaron Warren beating the defence and diving on the ball to score the Drover’s first try of the game. Full back Maynard was unable to add the extra’s.

Ebbw were awarded a penalty midway through the half after a home side’s player knocked the ball on. Lloyd uncharacteristically sent the ball wide.

With the Drovers having the majority of the ball, no further points were added to the score during the remainder of the first half.

HT: Llandovery 8-5 Ebbw Vale

After the Steelmen made some early second half changes to the front row, Llandovery had a line out in the away side’s half. The forwards set up a maul, however, the Ebbw pack did well to hold the ball up and stop a try from being scored. 

A second try of the game came for Llandovery, when the home side’s number four Griff Evans charged down a clearance kick from Ebbw scrum half Jon Evans inside the Steelmen’s twenty-two and dived on the ball over the line to score. Full back Maynard was unable to add the two points. 

Within a few minutes the home side scored their third try of the game. A knock on by the away side led to the Drover’s chipping the ball out to their winger, who drew the full back and sent scrum half and captain Lee Rees in under the posts. Maynard added the extra’s.  

After both sides made numerous changes, no further points were added to the scoreline until the last two minutes, where the Ebbw backs broke from their twenty-two and fed the ball to winger Morgan Richards, who showed a turn of pace and sprinted the length of the field to score under the posts. Replacement outside half Meek added the conversation. 

In the last play of the game, the away side were on the Llandovery twenty-two when the referee awarded a penalty. Ebbw replacement Meek kept a cool head to slot the penalty with the last kick of the game.

FT: Llandovery 20-15 Ebbw Vale 

After the game we spoke with try scorer Ethan Phillips who made his fiftieth appearance for the club. Ethan acknowledged Llandovery is a hard place to play rugby, the performance was not the best and too many mistakes were made. Ebbw could not keep hold of the ball until the last two minutes of the game where we started to put together some phase. The work rate was there, we are a hard-working team, however, the skill level let us down.

We also spoke to Geraint Lewis. Geraint was disappointed with the result and the performance. He knew that Llandovery is a hard place to come to, we did not give the best reflection of our selves and did not get our game going. He felt that we were fortunate to come away with a bonus point.