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Ahead of their Div 1 West Central fixture with Bynamman, Bridgend Athletic Teams held a minute’s silence for their former Wales U18 Cap and current U7 coach Lee Sims who passed away aged just 31. In a fitting tribute to Lee and current flanker Sean Williams making his 300^th 1^ST XV appearance the team moved to top place in their league with a 6-2 try differential 39-18 win.

The Ath kicked off deep into the Brynamman 22. A clearance kick found wing Tom Davies on the touchline inside his own half. Davies set off on a curving run beating several defenders before being halted inside the Amman 22. The Athletic were awarded a kickable penalty, but with confidence high from their previous weekend’s 44-7 win they elected to kick to the corner. The driving maul was halted illegally. The Athletic took a 5-metre scrum penalty and scrum half Aled Thomas ran blind bringing into play centres Jacob Lloyd and Danny O’Sullivan who popped the ball to lock Ben Cording on the burst to dive over wide out. Luke Bevan kicked a touchline conversion.

Brynamman struck back from the restart when under pressure the Ath conceded a penalty goaled by Amman’s outside half.

On the half hour mark the Athletic thought they should have been awarded a penalty try when a driving maul heading at speed for the try line was illegally pulled down but had to settle for a penalty which Bevan put to touch 5 metres out. Hooker Murphy found flanker Sean Williams and this time the driving maul took its course resulting in prop Matthew Norman’s fourth try of the season. Bevan again converted from the touchline to bring up his 400^th senior Athletic point in 54 appearances. In a repeat of the first Ath try Amman responded with a second penalty.

With 5 minutes remaining in the half the Athletic opened play on halfway. Centre Lloyd who was having a good controlling game timed his pass to Bevan 30 metres out. Barry John style Bevan ghosted effortlessly past 3 defenders to cross wide out for a 19-6 lead.

An Amman kick ahead was partly charged down on halfway and the ball ricocheted fortunately to their wing in space wide out. He pinned back his ears and outpaced the Ath defence to cross in the corner to reduce the Ath’s half time lead to 19-11.

Within two minutes of the restart this was a single point lead. Amman drove a 5-metre line out to the Ath line and released quick ball for their right wing to cross in the corner for a converted try. Buoyed by this Amman launched a 10-minute period of pressure aided by the Athletic conceding too many penalties, The Athletic defence was strong and the game turned when from a scrum 5 metres from the Ath line the Ath front row of Norman, Murphy and Matt Muir playing in the unfamiliar tight head role pushed the visitors back 10 metres conceding a penalty, From the line out penalty the Athletic drove a maul 20 metres which resulted in a penalty 35 metres out which Bevan kicked between the uprights.

Muir earned a man of the match award leading an outstanding Athletic scrum master class dominance deflating the visitors and gaining the Athletic several penalties to keep them on the front foot and allowing No 8 Ben Davies to pick up and cause havoc. Another 5-metre penalty driving maul was halted but following drives from lock Jonathon Stoker and centre Tom Davies quick ball from scrum half Aled Thomas to Bevan showed the outside half can score with strength as well as finesse as he dived over through a defender for his second try of the game. His conversion saw him achieve a match haul of 19 points for the second consecutive week with a repeat 2 tries, 3 conversions and a penalty, and give the Athletic a 29-18 lead.

The Athletic had their strongest bench this season and hooker Nathan Holman, lock Will Petchell and centres Tom Morgan and Tom Jenkins were introduced.

The Athletic continued to dominate and flanker and captain Ben Howe charged down a clearance kick inside the visitors 22. He was on hand when the ball was quickly moved to receive a scoring pass from full back Robin Davies to cross for his fourth try of the season. He thought he had a second when the Athletic applied pressure on an Amman 5 metre scrum which saw the ball squirt out over the Amman line. Howe reacted quickly – too quickly for the referee who was unsighted as the Athletic flanker applied downward pressure on the ball.

In the final minute the Athletic knocked on crossing the try line. Prop Matthew Norman was hurt and was replaced by Wayne Fooks for the final play an Amman put in to a 5 metre scrum. Fooks a renowned scrummager helped the Athletic pack drive Amman off their own ball. Scrum half Thomas threw a wide pass to wing Sam Richards for the Athletics’ sixth try and a table topping 38-19 victory.

The Athletic 1^ST & 2^ND teams visit Ammanford this weekend.