DIVISION ONE EAST CENTRAL
LLANHARAN ............... 20 PORTH QUINS ............. 10
HOME skipper Huw Thomas admitted that his side had played better this season and still lost!
However, the important statistic was the win, halting a run of three Division One East Central defeats and keeping Llanharan on the edge of the leading clubs.
It would be fair to say that Porth deserved some reward from a game in which they had the lion’s share of possession and territory for long periods.
Their failure to win owed much to never-saydie defence by the Dairymen, not to mention the incessant rain which brought frequent errors and produced a poor spectacle for the large crowd.
There were too many bad decisions and a lot of poor execution for Thomas’s men, and frustrated head coach Jeff Pick said his team had underperformed.
“We know we are better than that,” he summed up, “but we have strengthened our position in the table and can improve.”
In his second stint at the helm, the former club captain did however praise his half backs. Chrissy Poole moved to the 10 shirt after Lloyd Thomas withdrew with an injury, while inside him Craig Burton was one who rose above the conditions and showed his class.
Each played prominent parts in creating a matchwinning scoreline, Poole cutting through nicely almost from the kick-off for an early try and, late in the game, Burton effectively following up his kick ahead to dislodge the ball from the defender and maintain forward momentum. It ended with Liam Union winning the race to the touch down and put Porth out of contention, only time added on to be decided by authoritative young referee Aaron Parry.
Union himself did well, only moving into the starting lineout on the day of the match, also grabbing a first half try for his team.
It came in the 27th minute after Lee Morris had driven into the defence, Poole again prominent in good follow-up work.
Gavin Parsons converted the first try and landed a first-half penalty.
Porth got on the scoreboard with an almost instant response to Poole’s opener, scrum half Jack Foulkes darting over and Lewis Williams converting.
It was undoubtedly a reflection of the effect of the downpour and two misfiring teams that neither could benefit from yellow card advantages, Porth the first to see their numbers reduced in the 10 minutes before half time, then Paul Winter given his marching orders by the Pontypool official early in the second half, Williams’ subsequent penalty the visitors’ only reward.
Porth dominated much of the second half and once back to 15-10 from that Williams’ kick seemed to have every chance of a victory that few could have complained about, but then came that telling bit of class from Burton and Union’s victory-clinching double.