Trebanos 13 Alltwen 15
Friday 7th March 2008.
This was the club’s fourth outing of 2008, and the fourth defeat, but what a difference in six days, gone was the lethargy and malaise of the inept display of the previous Saturday to be replaced by a collective pride and sense of purpose, traditional Trebanos virtues. The pity was that the better side lost and that the home supporters were outnumbered by our visitors from just up the valley, with the Trebanos faithful having decamped en masse to Dublin for the weekend's Ireland v Wales international.
Trebanos started at a tremendous pace and took the game to the visitors from the first whistle, with Nic Damjanovic trying a snap drop goal from forty metres, which was just outside the upright, within the first two minutes. Trebanos then put Alltwen under a lot of pressure, with their lighter pack really shaking the Alltwen eight, and getting their reward with two penalties in quick succession, but again these chances were not converted into points. The visitors then came into the game more, which was still being played between the Alltwen ten and twenty two metre lines. Alltwen were again penalised for killing the ball and Rhodri Thomas slotted over the penalty to give the home side a deserved lead.
Trebanos increased their lead, when Nic Damjanovic, fed Rhodri Thomas with a lovely short pass, for Rhodri to straighten, beat his man, round ex-Trebanos product Sean Hamer and score under the posts; a try which he converted to stun the many visiting supporters. Alltwen mounted several attacks which were dealt with comfortably and never looked like producing a try against a much more determined side than of late, but their pressure was rewarded when full-back Sean Hamer kicked a penalty to cut the deficit. Then came five minutes when the concentration levels of the home side slipped a little and presented Alltwen with good field position well into the home twenty two and from a home scrum, the ball shot out sideways from the back row for the visiting outside-half Aaron Davies to fall on the ball for the simplest try that he will score this year.
The second period followed the same pattern as the first with the lighter Trebanos pack getting in amongst their heavier opponents, with the game being played more in the home half as the Alltwen pack tried to assert themselves and for the most part being met with tremendous effort by the ‘Banos eight. The home side’s tackling to keep the visitors out during a five minute spell was quite fantastic; as player after player tried to get over the home line from just a few metres. Alltwen took the lead when the ball was passed to centre Ben Howells, who took advantage of the one time that Trebanos didn’t tackle to surge through for the score, again the conversion attempt failed.
Trebanos responded by again playing football and outside-half Nic Damjanovic fed left wing Steve Williams on a superb move from the training pitch, which saw the winger clean through, but Alltwen managed to scramble the ball clear. The outside-half then showed what he could do with a clean break of some fifty yards, but the referee didn’t spot the supporting Nathan Jones being held back and Nic was tackled into touch some ten metres short. Nic Damjanovic cut the deficit with a well struck penalty from over forty metres and the visitors’ lead was down to just two points. On a rare visit inside the home twenty two, Alltwen were awarded the put-in at a scrum and their heavier pack were shunted off the ball by the ‘banos eight and the ball was cleared safely. Both sides had chances to kick penalties to alter the score, but no further scores were added.
Trebanos started this game with four current youth team players and a young prop in his first season out of youth team rugby and all five played with great skill and no little “hwyl”. Even though this was the fourth defeat in as many games, if this level of skill and application is repeated fro the remainder of the season, the results will come. Team manager Lynn Penhale was rightly proud of the team when saying that the better team lost, a comment echoed by the many Alltwen supporters in the club after the game who thought that their side had been very lucky to escape with the victory.
Trebanos Team:
N Jones; A Penhale, S Barrett, R Thomas(Capt), S Williams; N Damjanovic, J Bailey; N Bartlett, D Davies, C Harries (J Harding); L Jones, L Davies (M Hurst-Hughes); M Evans, R Phillips (M Whiteman), J Erasmus.