PRINCIPALITY PREMIERSHIP

EBBW VALE ................. 32 BRIDGEND ..................... 0

EBBW VALE flanker Rhys Clarke and outside-half Josh Lewis were the stars as the Principality Premiership champions put Bridgend Ravens to the sword collecting four tries for an invaluable bonuspoint victory.

Clarke was in dynamic form in a well-drilled home pack while Lewis once again impressed by scoring a try and kicking two penalties and three conversions for a personal points tally of 17.

The other Vale tryscorers were powerful No 8 Rory Pitman – playing against his former club – left wing Jared Rosser and replacement back-row man Dawid Rubasniak.

But there was a general feeling at the end that Vale should have cashed in with more points against a side who defended gallantly but were undone by their own lack of discipline.

Full-back Marc Bennett, prop Nicky Boyce, centre Jamie Murphy and replacement prop Lewis Francis all had spells in the sin-bin while Vale replacement hooker Mathew Williams suffered the same fate deep in injury time.

To add to their troubles, the Ravens lock Jack Pope had to be stretchered from the field in the 37th minute – the game being held up for more than eight minutes while he received treatment on the field.

Lewis scored the best try of the somewhat disjointed match in the 53rd minute after skipping through a huge gap in the visitors’ defence who at that stage were playing with only 13 men.

Vale’s new forwards coach Lee Davies said after the match: “This was a very frustrating game as far as we were concerned.

“We tried to force things in the first half and failed to finish things off in what we call the red zone.

“There is still a lot of frustration in the camp because we could and should have scored more points.”

Bridgend Ravens head coach Matthew Silva said: “Ebbw Vale are a good side at home so we set out to frustrate them and we did that in the first half when they led just 6-0.

“They changed their tactics in the second half and exploited our depleted ranks because of the yellow cards.

“We need to look at our attacking game because we have not scored a try in the last two games.”