Maynard clinches late draw

JACK Maynard thought his 79thminute penalty had done the trick to earn his side three points at the Arms Park, but he saw his 40-metre shot come back off the crossbar.

But a minute later the Llandovery general kept his cool to ensure the scores ended even with a drop-goal with the last kick of the match.

It was nothing less than the Drovers deserved for their effort, which was made all the harder by the 17th-minute dismissal of lock Jack Jones for a butt and the 70thminute sin-binning of replacement forward Morgan Jones.

“It was a really good result for us after we lost Jack so early,” said Maynard. “I knew when I was lining up the penalty there was a breeze and it was on my limit. I struck it well, but it hit the crossbar. Then we went for the try, although once we didn’t get to where we wanted off first phase it got to a point where we had to set up the drop shot.”

Dafydd Hughes, with an outrageous dummy, Corey Baldwin and the outstanding Stuart Worrall all crossed for Llandovery in the first half and Aaron Warren got the fourth three minutes into the second half.

It meant Cardiff were always chasing the game. Ben Thomas broke through for a first-half try and Ed Howley scored in the left corner, replacement Joey Tomlinson scored with his first touch and Joe Gatt was worked over with the Drovers down to 13 men.

But Maynard had the last laugh as he levelled things up.