Gowerton 10 Trebanos 20
Saturday 3rd November 2007.
Prior to the kick off, both teams and their supporters observed a minute silence as a mark of respect for Ray Gravell, and our sincere condolences go out to his family.
With the teams at opposite ends of the league table, the neutral observer would have expected the Trebanos side to dominate the game from the outset. Rugby though, is played on grass not paper and the Gowerton team hadn’t read the script. Apart from one good run from right wing Andrew Penhale early on in the first half, not a lot went right for the ‘banos boys. Gowerton took a deserved lead through a penalty from experienced outside half Wyn Banfield and went further ahead when he then took advantage of a dog leg defence presented by the Trebanos backs to score a good try under the posts which he converted to make the score Gowerton 10 Trebanos 0.
These scores seemed to galvanise the efforts of the Trebanos pack and following a period of pressure in the home 22, Trebanos were awarded a penalty which was kicked by Rhodri Thomas to cut the deficit. Then came the best try of the season so far. Young left wing Mike Morris called a mark inside his 22, took a quick tap and the ball swiftly was passed to captain Amer Hussein, who was making a welcome return from injury, he made a half break which held up the Gowerton defence and passed the ball out of the tackle to flyer Penhale who received the ball just inside his own half. He then accelerated past the first line of defence on the outside, just inches from the touchline, cut back in and then swerved outside the despairing full-back, before again sidestepping the cover to score a try that had everything, forward power, teamwork, speed of thought and action and a superb finish by Andrew Penhale. The try unfortunately went unconverted, and that was to be the last score of an enthralling first half, in which the Gowerton forwards contested every yard of the pitch.
Trebanos started the second half in a more positive manner and, from massive forward pressure at a home scrum, won a penalty between their 22 and 10 metre lines. Scrum half Owain George took a quick tap and fed half back partner Rhodri Thomas who put in a grubber kick behind the defence, Andrew Penhale was onto it like a flash and kicked through, his pace proved too much for the cover and he scored yet another fine try, which again went unconverted, but Trebanos were now in the lead for the first time during the game. Trebanos seemed to relax and tried to play a more fluid game and were frustrated by the last pass of a movement being dropped or forward and could have stretched their lead considerably had they had the rub of the green. Gowerton lost their right wing 
with a suspected broken ankle during one flowing threequarter move from Trebanos. When the movement broke down inside the home 22 the ‘banos forwards decided that it was their turn to get on the score sheet and impressive replacement hooker James (F1J1) Erasmus powered over from fully two metres for a deserved try which was converted by Rhodri Thomas. The game then suffered from a surfeit of whistle with Mr Hennessy seeming to lose any patience that he might have had with the Trebanos players and Wyn Banfield had several chances to get a losing bonus point for the home team, chances which were not taken.
There were impressive performances from Mike Hurst-Hughes, Simon Knight, Rhodri Jones, the ever improving Liam Jones, returning captain Amer Hussein and of course Andrew Penhale who scored another brace of tries. At the time of writing there is no update on the injury to Gowerton’s Steve Payne, and our best wishes go out to him.
Trebanos Team: L Pickman; A Penhale, A Hussein (Capt), S Williams, M Morris; R Thomas, O George; N Bartlett, D Davies, S Knight; L Jones, M Hurst-Hughes; M Evans, R Jones, M Whiteman. Subs: B Howells C Harries, J Erasmus, S Williams.
Referee: Mr Neil Hennessy (Cardiff).