CHALLENGE CUP
ABERAVON .................. 31 BRIDGEND RAVENS .... 7
IT’S A long time since the marvellous 40-10 demolition of high-flying Merthyr but a youthful Ravens side battled bravely against an experienced Aberavon side at the Talbot Athletic Ground.
It was a first defeat in this competition but not entirely unexpected after a disappointing four successive Premiership defeats.
The cup is intended to develop players for the future and head coach Matt Silva sent out a largely inexperienced side, young and largely local.
Aberavon managed five tries in the match, two unanswered in the first half. Jonathan Phillips was able to step his way over the line, converted by Steffen Williams. David Pritchard bagged the second having fumbled a certain try moments before. Williams again converted for a 14-0 lead.
Bridgend ended the half with a magnificent defensive effort. A big maul defence stopped Aberavon from five metres to keep themselves just two scores adrift.
The Aberavon forwards dominated much of the second half play with powerful scrum and maul plays. A penalty try was awarded 10 minutes into the second half following a succession of scrum penalties at the Ravens line.
Into the final quarter of the match, Aberavon added the bonus point try. This time, the maul drive led to a try out wide for Ieuan Davies.
The Ravens continued to play expansive rugby despite the wet condi- tions. A host of replacements added some precision to the Ravens attack and some neat offloading led to the Ravens only score of the match. Jon Howard was in support to gather an offload and race over under the posts. Replacement Joseph Scrivens kicked a drop-kick conversion to get the game back under way with five minutes still to play.
Bridgend were down to 14 men late on, Matt Muir was shown a yellow card as the Ravens’ scrum continued to struggle – and Aberavon took advantage adding a fifth try. John Bamsey barged over after Aberavon kicked a penalty to the corner. Williams added his fourth conversion to bring up 30 points for the Wizards on a tough evening in tough conditions for an inexperienced Bridgend side.
It was a hard and steep learning curve for the youngsters but they will all benefit from the experience and many will become regular Ravens as they mature over the next few seasons.
There’s only a six-day turnaround for Bridgend as they face Aberavon again tonight (Wednesday) at the Bridgendford Brewery Field (ko 7.15pm) and it will be interesting to see if they can do well enough up front to give some of their speedy youngsters a chance to cast a spell over the Wizards.
After a trip to Bargoed Park on Christmas Eve, the Ravens end 2016 by hosting Aberavon again, this time in thje Principality Premiership but there’s unlikely to be a return visit to the Talbot Athletic Ground as the Premiership splits into two groups of eight teams and Aberavon will be in the top eight.