|
Saturday 18th October 2008
TILLERY PUSH GARN ALL THE
WAY
IN CONFIDENCE BOOSTER
Garndiffaith
(10)
22 Abertillery BG
(14)
17
report by D. Mason
The Green and Whites travelled to a high-flying
Garndiffaith side on the back of three successive narrow
defeats that had left them bottom of Division 3 East.
Despite that, confidence remained high since performances
have been good and, with a little more luck, more points
might have been garnered to date.
Abertillery started the game with a strong wind at their
backs and immediately went on the attack. It was not long
before a first penalty opportunity came their way, and
fullback Chris Stevens stepped up to take the long range
attempt. Unfortunately he failed to strike the ball with
his usual aplomb and narrowly missed. The game continued
with the visitors in the ascendancy and on ten minutes a
spilled Garndiffaith ball on half-way was hacked on by
outside half Darren Miles who maintained control of the
ball to score a well deserved try, Chris Stevens making no
mistake with the conversion for a deserved seven-point
lead.
From the restart, a series of penalties gave the home team
their first foothold in the visitors' 22 and, from a close
range lineout, the Garndiffaith loose head forced his way
over the line. The difficult conversion attempt was missed
leaving the
Green and Whites
with a narrow two-point lead.
Both teams continued to make the most of the fine
conditions and played some entertaining rugby keeping the
crowd on its feet. Both defences were stretched with
Abertillery's expansive game and Garndiffaith's tighter,
more direct game but neither side could add to their
tallys. Then, on thirty-six minutes the expansive efforts
of the visitors finally paid off with centre Nicky Stevens
scampering over for a try near the posts, Chris Stevens
once again adding the conversion. Tillery were unable to
hold onto their advantage for long though as Garndiffaith
stormed back. The threat seemed over when spilled ball led
to a Tillery five-metre scrum which was duly won, but the
Garn pack turned the slow ball over and powered over for
an unconverted try.
H-T: 10-14
With the strong wind now behind the home team, high kicks
were the order of the day. Full back Chris Stevens was
more than up to the task however, and on one of his
exciting counter attacks, a high tackle saw one of the
home team's centres receive a yellow card, but the
resultant penalty into the wind just failed.
Eleven minutes into the second half, Garn scrum-half Rod
Jones made a searing break from a scrum on half-way
releasing his back line. Last-ditch tackles by Nicky
Stevens and Lee Bowden seemed to have halted the move but
the now-misaligned Aber defence was breached wide out for
an unconverted try and the narrowest of home leads.
The home side was now in the ascendancy but they were
still wary of the potency of the Green and Whites; style
of play. The home pressure however told when on thirty two
minutes, a tiring Abertillery defence for the first time
failed to make a couple of tackles allowing the Garn
midfield to score near the posts. The added conversion
moved the home team eight pints ahead and, as in recent
weeks, the visitors looked as if they had lost the
possibility of at least a deserved bonus point.
However, Tillery rallied
once more and
a great attack gave Chris Stevens the chance to kick a
penalty and get the team into a bonus point position and
in range of a win. The youngster revealed no pressure and
struck the ball into the wind cleanly between the posts.
Nerves were raw however when on entering injury-time Garn
were awarded a long-range penalty attempt that might have
stolen the hard-earned point, but to the relief of the
visitors and their travelling support, it never troubled
the posts.
Tillery BG website man of the match: Adam Pegler
Weather:
Dry and windy
Ground conditions:
Firm
Scorers:
TRY: Miles, Nicky Stevens
CONVERSION: Chris Stevens (2)
PENALTY: Chris Stevens
Abertillery BG
Line-up:
Miles; Penn, N Stevens, C Stevens, Mason; Edwards
(Bowden 65), L.
Pegler; A Pegler (captain) (Berry, 58), J. Rossiter, D. Meredith
(Phelps, 54), Lane, Collins, Penny, (D Rossiter 60), Price,
Collier.
|
