Wednesday 24 April 2013

Tuesday rugby round-up

Llandovery set up a scintillating final day of the Premiership season as their 41-3 beating of Aberavon guaranteed a nail-biting 80 minutes for all sides still in with a shot at the play-offs.

They moved in to second spot, above Bedwas and Llanelli, with just two points separating the three sides. On Saturday they travel to Bedwas for a tantalising play-off showdown, with both sides knowing a win could see them home. Llanelli will be hoping that Llandovery overcome their hosts, or a draw is etched out, as that would see them take their play-off place no matter what happens in their fixture at Pontypridd.

With all the possible bonus point permutations, the real winner, of course, is the neutral.

It took the hosts just eight minutes to cross the whitewash through James Garland, before Shaun Miles, Jack Roberts, Adam Warren, Lee Rees and Chris Knight all followed suit. Garland converted three of them and added a drop goal for a personal tally of 14 points, with Roberts converting another.

Aberavon’s sole points came from a Craig Evans penalty just after the restart.

Elsewhere, Cardiff ended bottom side’s Swansea’s terrible season on another sour note with a 33-8 victory at St Helen’s.

Dan Fish flopped over for a brace of tries, with Garyn Lucas and Dan Partridge adding two more. James Thomas kicked the rest of the points. Swansea replied through an Aled Jenkins score and a Luke Price penalty.

In One West, Carmarthen Athletic wracked up a half century of points in an eight-try, 52-13 victory at Waunarlwydd.

Centre Viv Jenkins top-scored with two of those, with full-back Rhys Schiavone, Scott Maynard, hooker Gethin Robinson, centre Mike Sauro, Richard Broomfield and Aled Jones also going over. Maynard converted six of them.

The hosts earned a penalty try with the last play of the game, as a covering defender won the race to a kick over the top and hit the ball over the dead ball line.

There is an equally exciting race for the title in Three North as there is for the Premiership play-offs. Newtown in third triumphed 57-7 at home to Flint last night to leave them on 63 points, the same as second-placed Wrexham and just one behind leaders Rhos.

Flying wing Junior Dean put the final touches to two tries, with fly half Rowan Swanson scoring another and a very productive day for the pack resulting in five points each for No8 Nick Jones, flanker Craig Lewis, hooker Will Richards, pop Ashley Padget and second row John Harbour. Jack Bennett picked the remaining 17 points.

Rhos do have a game in hand on the other two as well as that extra point, and they play it tonight away at lowly Porthmadog.

Cilfynydd gave themselves a huge boost in the Four East title race by edging the battle of the top two 20-19 at Ynysddu, coming from 16-0 down with 20 minutes to go to sensationally nick it.

Greg and Dafydd Davies were the main instigators of the comeback with two tries, one of which was converted by Delme King and the other by Mark Burton, who also kicked two penalties in the remarkable win.

Jeremy Roberts looked to have almost single-handedly won the game for the hosts with their only try, converted, plus three penalties, while Craig Davies chipped in with a drop goal before the comeback.

The result leaves Cilfynydd seven points clear on 79, and with two games in hand, while Oakdale in third, just a point behind Ynysddu, also have a game in hand to play over them.

Llanybydder missed the chance to go top of Four West, crashing 28-14 at third-placed Fishguard. Rhodri Thomas, Ed Bendle, Mark George and Gavin Walsh all crossed for the hosts, with James Griffiths converting them to put a real dent in the visitors’ title bid.

Four South West leaders Penlan put 84 points past bottom club Birchgrove to celebrate the promotion they achieved by beating Bridgend Sports in their last outing.

They won 84-5, running in 14 tries, to put one hand on the title ahead of Glyncorrwg, providing there is no end-of-season collapse.

Wing Dafydd Pritchard and flanker Adam Glover both ran in hat-tricks, with centre Nathanial Llewellyn and scrum half Dominic Cambriani both adding braces. Full back Luke Davies, outside centre Lee Banfield, and the two second rows Kurt Velardo and Luke Mooney crossed for single scores, with outside half Steven Williams converting three of them, and his replacement Scott Davies converting another four.

Nantyglo moved eight points clear of Caerleon in Five East with a 17-7 win at Crumlin, while St Josephs are now 14 points clear in Five South East thanks to a 24-19 win at home over Caerau Ely.

Finally, Cwmgors climbed to the top of Five South West by beating Glais 29-0. Mike Hodges, James Varney, Steff Rees and Owen Davies tries secured the bonus point they required to climb above Cwmtwrch with a game in hand. Both clubs are on 80 points.

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