Drovers remain in form, but chasing pack stay in touch
IT’S as you were at the top of the Indigo Premiership after the leading four sides all took maximum points.
Champions Llandovery remain five points clear of Ebbw Vale and with two games in hand after hitting RGC for six in a 40-21 victory in North Wales.
Aaron Warren scored in each half with Harri Doel, Kian Abraham, Rhodri Jones and Craig Thomas also scoring for the Drovers, who were 33-7 up at half-time.
Ioan Hughes kicked four conversions and Jack Maynard one.
Sam Williams grabbed a try either side of the break for RGC alongside a Dafydd Williams try in the second half, with all three scores converted by Sam EarlJones. But their head coach Ceri Jones admitted it was a bad day at the office.
“I thought we were in a good place after training this week, but it wasn’t good enough,” he said.
“Llandovery are top of the league, champions and if you give them speed of ball then it’s difficult to contain them – and we gave it to them on a plate.”
Ebbw Vale took the disappointment of their agonising defeat at Llandovery out on bottom side Neath as they ran riot 73-5 at Eugene Cross Park.
The Steelmen ran in 11 tries with scrum-half Rory Harries helping himself to four.
There were five first-half tries to put Ebbw 31-0 to the good at the break with the bonus point already secure thanks to Morgan Richards, Dylan Bartlett, Ieuan Morris, Ethan Phillips and Harries.
Evan Lloyd converted three of them.
A further six tries followed in the second half, including three more for the outstanding Harries, as Jason Strange’s side turned the screw. Joe Franchi, Kieran Meek and Ewan Bowden also got in on the act.
Lloyd added a further four conversions while Meek kicked two.
Louis Rees replied with a consolation try for Neath.
Newport won with a bonus point for the fifth match in succession, but were made to work hard for their eventual 36-5 win over Carmarthen Quins.
The match remained scoreless for the first 30 minutes with lock Josh Skinner’s try breaking the deadlock. Matt O’Brien’s missed conversion meant Newport held a slender 5-0 lead at the break.
Jac Lloyd sidestepped his way through the Quins defence just after the restart to score a second Newport try with O’Brien taking care of the extras, before sending over a penalty.
Carmarthen got a try of their own through Iestyn Gwilliam as they went from one end of the field to the other.
Newport’s third try came after 78 minutes with Chay Smith cutting through, converted by O’Brien. They secured that allimportant bonus point after being awarded a penalty try before Oli Andrew went through for try number five almost straight from the restart, converted by O’Brien.
“There will be some learnings taken from that for us,” said Newport head coach Ty Morris.
“We probably only played about 10 minutes of accurate rugby and obviously we didn’t set out to go down that route.
“We focussed around a big 20 minutes and being really accurate and efficient – and it didn’t happen for us.
“Credit goes to Carmarthen. They made a really big fight of it and got after us a little bit, particularly around the breakdown and we just made too many errors for 60 to 70 minutes.
“But credit to the boys, they knew we were aiming for a bonuspoint win, so the intensity went up and we scored some lovely tries to finish off.”
Cardiff won for the seventh time in their last eight league matches by seeing off Bridgend Ravens 38-23 at the Arms Park.
Joe Goodchild bagged a brace with Alun Rees, Nathan Hudd and Harrison James also among the scorers for the Blue and Blacks. Arwel Robson kicked five conversions and a penalty.
Chris Williams and Tommy Morgan scored tries for Bridgend, both converted by Paul Short, with Jamin Hodgkins sending over three penalties.
However, the win was marred by an injury to Cardiff’s Joey Tomlinson, who was stretchered off in the second half.
Aberavon scored eight tries as they saw off Swansea 48-13 at the Talbot Athletic Ground.
Cameron Lewis, Liam Seaward and Andrew Waite scored firsthalf tries for Aberavon, all converted by James Davies for a 21-13 interval lead. Jack Rodon and Sam Pailor replied for the Whites, with Jacob Symes kicking a penalty.
Lewis, Rhys Thomas, Cameron Loveys, Ben Gregory and Jay Baker all crossed for Aberavon after the break. Davies converted Thomas’ try.