Pontyclun facing drop after absorbing derby
DIVISION 2 EAST CENTRAL LLANTRISANT .............. 9 PONTYCLUN ................. 6
DESPITE the low score this was an utterly absorbing local derby match watched by the biggest crowd at Cefn Mabley this season.
Llantrisant can now look forward to promotion based on a very successful season but Pontyclun are facing possible relegation unless they can win their last game at Abercynon this Saturday.
Throughout the game the two sides were evenly matched and Pontyclun can take solace from the fact that they have performed so well against the Division's top three sides in the last three weeks.
The scrums were fiercely contested with the Llan front row of Pemberton, Andrews and Evans having a grand tussle with the Clun trio of Bosanko, Barclay and Court.
Behind them Harrison and Israel managed to contain the Badger pair of Yates and Williams.
Both sets of half backs had their share of good ball to get their threequarters moving and the experienced scrum halves, Holloway for Llan and Theaker for the visitors, were constantly looking for options to break the opposition.
Theaker tried hard with a range of forceful runs but was too often isolated from any support.
Holloway, when contained by the Clun back row varied his game allowing his back row to pick up from scrums giving him more space to create moves.
On the narrow field it was always going to be defence which would be the key factor and here, credit to both sides for the energetic and sometimes thunderous, tackling which prevented any tries being scored.
Against that scenario there were few opportunities for the wings to show their paces although Jones for Llan and Lewis for Clun put in a few cameo parts showing how dangerous they could be on a larger pitch.
The home team had the edge in defensive kicking, where, on their home patch, outside half Williams and full back Raison were able to place pin point clearances to relieve their forwards.
By contrast Morgan and Pascoe, for the visitors could not get the measure of the field and struggled clearances often went to welcoming receivers leading to dangerous counter attacks.
So the game eventually came down to penalties and a last minute drop goal.
By the half way mark Theaker had bagged two penalties, for offside infringements, for Pontyclun and wing threequarter Montague badly missed three sitters for the “Black Army”.
Yet as the second half unfolded it was Montague who levelled the score with two penalties and in the dying minutes, after a final home team attack, dropped a sweet goal to give Llantrisant the game and now the challenge of promotion.
Next Saturday Llantrisant have their last League home fixture against Llanishen whilst Pontyclun travel to Abercynon for that all-important final game.