Tuesday, 14 May 2013

Principality Premiership Play-off, Championship and Division One weekend rugby round-up

Llanelli will face Pontypridd in the Principality Premiership Championship Play-off final after out-scoring Llandovery 20-29 at Church Bank.

After taking an instant lead, their four tries kept them ahead of their foes throughout, and now they can look forward to a chance to wrestle the Premiership crown off of the Swalec Cup winners this Saturday evening at Sardis Road, live on S4C.

Kristian Phillips crossed within the first minute, converted by Jordan Williams, as the men in red edged ahead.

James Garland cut the deficit to a single point through two penalties but Llanelli came back, and on 28 minutes Nick Reynolds got their second score, again converted by Williams.

Llandovery then got their first try after 37 minutes through Sean Miles, with Garland adding the extras to leave it nicely poised at 13-14 at the interval.

Williams kicked Llanelli further ahead within two minutes of the restart with a penalty, and then Daniel Thomas crossed again on 54.

Just three minutes later, Kieron Murphy touched down to give the hosts hope, Garland again converting, but in to injury time, the impressive Williams dived over for Llanelli before kicking the extras to finish with a personal tally of 14 points to seal a thrilling win.

In the Championship, the season drew to a close with the final three matches being played.

Runners up Bargoed finished with a 25-10 win over Beddau, running in three tries. Kristian Perry, Lewis Protheroe and James Howe got them, with Lee Pearson converting two and kicking two penalties.
George Lee grabbed a score in reply, with Tom Benjamin kicking the rest.

Whitland survived a second half Glamorgan Wanderers fightback to win the battle of the bottom two 30-19.

They led 27-7 at half-time thanks to touchdowns from Will Davies, Gethin Jones and Frazer Watson (two) to secure the bonus point, with Mike Stephens going over in reply for the Wanderers.

But a Jonathan Thomas penalty was all the hosts added in the second half, with Owen Marshall and Stephens again making the score more respectable for the visitors.

The other fixture saw Tata Steel close out the season with a 42-15 win at Blackwood.

Ystrad Rhondda kept the One East title race alive with a bonus point 37-22 victory over Treorchy. A David Gratton brace was added to by Daniel John and Rhys Truelove, with the latter adding four conversions and three penalties in an impressive personal performance.

They would have walked off the pitch to discover that rivals RGC 1404 had thrashed troubled Tredegar 134-0 in reply.

They ran in 19 scores, with Richard Hopkins and Tom Parry top-scoring with hat-tricks, and Llywarch and Carwyn ap Myrddin both weighing in with braces.

The result of that title race goes down to the wire, with Ystrad Rhondda needing to beat Merthyr tomorrow and hope RGC fail to beat Rhydyfelin on Saturday.

Elsewhere, Ynysybwl beat Mountain Ash 22-10, while Merthyr triumphed 29-20 over Rumney and Swalec Plate winners Heol y Cyw beat Penallta 23-10.

In One West, Cwmllynfell fell to a 32-17 defeat at Waunarlwydd. The hosts crossed five times through Jordan Clayfield, Alan Pope, Dan Fox, David Evans and Lee Evans, with the latter kicking the rest.

The visitors replied through Bowdy Davies, Tristan Lewis and Brian Curtis, with their season closing with a trip to Loughor tonight.

They climbed above Ammanford on the weekend with a 48-10 win at bottom side Aberavon Quins. Morgan Bryant grabbed a brace of scores, with Jonathan Phillips matching that feat. Joel Thompson, Steve Wake, Pete Smiriglia and a penalty try provided the other touchdowns.

Glynneath beat Skewen 40-21, while Kidwelly also won at home, 29-10 over Llangennech.

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