News

ABERAVON CONTINUE EARLY SEASON FORM

23 OCTOBER 2019 15:05

Aberavon RFC came back from 12-0 down to win 22-29 and maintain their unbeaten record this season with a hard-fought victory over the defending league champions, Merthyr at The Wern on Saturday 19^th October.

The Wizards, currently sit in second position in the Indigo Group Premiership after victories over Bridgend, Swansea, Newport and now Merthyr respectively.

The Ironmen (Merthyr RFC) were coming off the back of a defeat against Bridgend and certainly looked like they had a point to prove as they came out of the blocks firing, scoring twice in the opening ten minutes to take an early 12-0 lead.

Aled Thomas opened the scoring for Aberavon with a penalty after twelve minutes and shortly afterwards, Merthyr found themselves down to fourteen men, receiving a yellow card for not rolling away. The Wizards got themselves a line-out on the Merthyr five-metre line and from the resulting drive, replacement scrum-half David Pritchard fired out a pass to centre Chay Smith who went under the posts. Thomas converted and Aberavon were back to within two points.

Merthyr went straight back on the attack, gathering the dropped restart and missed at a drop-goal attempt. They were back on the scoreboard after 31 minutes with a penalty, and after a period of loose kicking and missed tackles, winger Sam Jones scored his second try of the match. It was converted and, despite a period of pressure from Aberavon, the Ironmen took a 22-10 lead into the interval.

It was the Wizards who started quickly in the second half, Aled Rees going over in the corner after five phases of attacking play, Pritchard again heavily involved in the build-up. Aled Thomas added a lovely touchline conversion to bring the Wizards too within one try.

Merthyr received their second yellow card of the afternoon after a high tackle by captain Phil Rees and Thomas once against converted the penalty to bring to score to 22-20 with 54 minutes played. Aberavon took the lead for the first time in the match after 67 minutes with a penalty after a kick and chase. Another quick penalty followed and Thomas retained his 100 per cent kicking record, converting from the Merthyr 10 metre line and taking the score to 22-26.

The Wizards defended to a man in the dying minutes as Merthyr searched for a score to win the game. Then deep into injury time, Aberavon won a kickable penalty which was once again converted by the faultless Thomas to close out the match.

E.G.Lewis Group were proud to announce our partnership with Aberavon RFC as a back of the shorts sponsor for the new Indigo Group Premiership season back in September here - https://www.eglewisgroup.com/news/v/117-e-g-lewis-group-is-blood-and-black/

Image courtesy of Riley Sports Photography - hhttp://www.rileysportsphoto.com/home