Aberavon Harlequins RFC 9 v Bridgend Athletic RFC 7

WRU Division 1 West Central: Friday 24^th February 2017

A narrow defeat in this rearranged fixture played in good conditions has probably consigned the Athletic to fighting for the minor honours in Division 1 West Central this season. There is now little prospect of winning the division and progressing to the play-offs for a speedy return to the Championship and the word for the remainder of the season is surely to concentrate on developing the young talent available at the club to good effect for the future.

The Athletic do not have a good record in these floodlit games in recent times and Friday’s outcome was no different. It was a game of great effort and toil on the part of both sides but there was little guile, composure or fluency on show to whet the appetite of the considerable crowd made up mainly of partisan and vociferous Quins supporters.

The home side had the better of the early exchanges and the Athletic front row of Wayne Fooks, Matt Muir and hooker Lee Murphy were under pressure at the scrums. After 10 minutes or so Murphy body checked an opponent and was sent to the sin-bin as Quins outside half Mark Sheppard opened the scoring with a well struck penalty. With one man short the visitors had to defend for their lives and solid work by captain Ben Howe and former captain Sean Williams kept the Quins at bay. On Murphy’s return the Athletic raised their game and some strong runs by flanker Johnny Howard and locks Chris John and Jon Stoker had the Athletic on the front foot. When the Athletic were penalised for a ruck infringement the Quins loose-head retaliated and was shown a Yellow Card. The Athletic pressed strongly with young fly-half Luke Bevan kicking well to the corner but poor control at a lineout allowed the home side to clear. This followed two penalty kicks at goal that were both pushed wide.

Aberavon Quins, in a rare moment of endeavour, counter-attacked and cut through to the Athletic posts where a clear forward pass saved the Bridgend side, although the pass that started the move looked suspiciously adjacent too. Nevertheless, with the home pack restored to a full complement the Athletic gave up a penalty at the resulting scrum in front of their posts and Sheppard once again converted to give the home side a lead of 6-0 at half-time.

In the second-half the Ath were intent on moving the ball more and scrum half Aled Thomas tried to bring in his young back-line with centres Stuart Floyd-Ellis and Tom Jenkins (an 11^th hour replacement for Chris Price) carrying the ball determinedly and wings Harry Griffiths and Youth scrum-half Dan James, playing out of position looking to take on their opponents whenever the opportunities arose.

The Quins were kicking deep and another Youth team player Sam Richards was equal to the demands and returned everything with interest or attempted to get his team going forward. Ben Howe made a storming run that eventually led to another penalty attempt that hit the post. By this time the home team were down to 14 men for another ten minutes with their hooker earning the displeasure of the referee. This meant that their scrum was now feeling the pressure but the Ath were unable to capitalise as sloppy mistakes, poor ball retention and decision making hampered their play.

Just as the home team was restored to full strength the Athletic exerted some telling pressure and two or three quick pick and drives towards the Quins posts allowed quick ball to be moved quickly left and young Dan James squirted over for a corner try that Stuart Floyd-Ellis converted from the touch-line to give the visitors the lead. Back came the visitors and pressed hard on the Quins 22 but a ruck penalty and then an offside call led to Sheppard kicking at goal from 45m out. His effort hit the post but an Athletic player was judged to have touched the ball as it bounced into a colleague’s hands and another penalty was awarded in front of the posts which Sheppard made no mistake in slotting over to give the home team what was to prove a winning lead.

Despite striving manfully to claw back the deficit it wasn’t the visitors’ night and the game finished with the Quins driving the ball to maintain a stranglehold on possession and running out 9-7 winners.