Scrivens inspires Sankala’s men in vital basement battle

BEDWAS came out on top in a thriller with basement boys Neath to get the jump on their relegation rivals.

The Bridge Field side ran in five tries to earn a vital bonus-point victory over the gutsy Welsh All Blacks, who kept in touch with three scores of their own.

The five-point triumph has lifted Stefan Sankala's men out of the bottom four by two clear points on a weekend when their fellow relegation candidates Llanelli and Cross Keys both emerged pointless.

Man-of-the-match Joe Scrivens ended the game with a 16-point haul. He notched his first three to level early on after Jordan Rees opened the scoring for Neath with a penalty.

Bedwas hooker Alun Rees powered over from close range for a converted try, before No.8 Dale Rogers touched down to make it 176.

Bedwas were threatening to run away with it before half-time when Adam Williams raced down the wing to score, but Neath scrum-half Nicky Griffiths snuck over to narrow the gap to 11 points.

Centre Keiran Williams cut through after half-time to give the visitors hope of a comeback and another Rees penalty moved them to within three.

But Scrivens scored a try of his own before converting Sion Parry’s close-range effort to take them clear again.

Gareth Hopkins grabbed a late consolation, but it was never going to be enough for the bottom side.