News

11 November 2019 / Club News

Tondu 8 Bridgend Athletic 14

Tondu 8 Bridgend Athletic 14

Specsavers National League – Div 1 West Central – Sat Nov 9th, 2019

 

A 78th minute penalty try snatched a 14-8 victory from the jaws of defeat as Bridgend Athletic finally overcame Tondu’s resolute resistance to leave Pandy Park with the spoils in a keenly contested local derby.

 

The win moves the Athletic to 2nd place in Div 1 West Central with 19 points – 5 adrift of pacesetters Bonymaen. It is the Athletics’ best start to a season in 3 years with the two previous seasons seeing the Athletic with only 13 and 14 points at this stage after 6 league games.

 

The Athletic from the start took the game to Tondu with the forwards on top providing the backs with plenty of ball. A Luke Bevan break saw centre Jacob Lloyd held a metre short of the try line. Good runs by wing Sam Richards, full Back Robin Davies and scrum half Aled Thomas saw Tondu just beat them to minor chips ahead. Thomas celebrating his 200th senior appearance for the Athletic was courteously featured on the cover and inside of the Tondu match programme. However, the players had not read the script of “be nice to Aled”. Aled having already survived a late tackle and some other brutal tackles had Tondu skipper lock Hywel Davies thinking he was in a boxing match with him. His punch saw Davies paying the ultimate penalty of a red card on the twenty-minute mark.

 

Down to 14 men and struggling at the set piece scums against the formidable experienced Athletic front row of props Man of Match Matthew Norman and Wayne Fooks and hooker Lee Murphy Tondu launched their first significant attack inside the Athletic 22. Outside half Gareth Lindenburn put a penalty to touch 5 metres from the Athletic try line. A driving maul was halted just short of the try line, but scrum half Geraint Gillet moved the ball quickly to the blind side to see wing Stuart Young dive over near the corner flag for an unconverted try.

 

The 5-point lead was short lived as the Athletic pack forced a penalty which Bevan put into touch 5 metres from the try line. Hooker Murphy found flanker Sean Williams with his throw in. Tondu could not halt the Athletic driving maul which Murphy had joined and secured the touchdown. This try saw Murphy become the Ath’s leading try scorer this campaign with his 3rd touchdown of the season. Bevan secured the conversion to give the Athletic a 7-5 lead. Despite dominating possession and territory a combination of Tondu defence and handling errors meant the Athletic could not improve on that lead at the interval.

 

For twenty minutes in the second half the pattern of Athletic territorial and possession dominance continued with Athletic lock Ben Cording and No 8 Ben Davies adjudged to have been held up over the try line and flanker Ben Howe penalised for a double movement on the floor a metre from the Tondu line. The Athletic had a great chance to take the lead with a 5 metre throw in from touch. However, the ball went loose and was hacked down field by a grateful Tondu forward. Tondu’s chase and pressure was good forcing a penalty on the Ath 22 metre try line. Replacement Luke Whitall kicked a goal to give the Waterwheelers an unlikely 8-7 lead.

 

What followed was like the siege of the Alamo as roared on by a home side crowd Tondu’s defiant defence frustrated every attacking effort by the Athletic. The Athletic brought on lock Jonathon Stoker for Will Petchell and Nathan Homan at hooker. Another enforced change saw double centurion Aled Thomas leave the field with an ankle injury forcing an Athletic reshuffle with full back Davies moving to scrum half, Lloyd to full back and debutant youth centre Danny O’Sullivan joining the action. O’Sullivan took to senior rugby like a duck to water making three strong runs at the Tondu defence. Bevan narrowly missed a wide out penalty. The Athletic chose to kick two further penalties to touch in the hope of driving Tondu over the try line.

 

Holman did cross but the referee adjudged he was held up. Another drive was halted and to the delight of the home side a defensive 5 metre scrum awarded to Tondu with two minutes remaining.

 

The Athletic 8 summoned one final effort with Holman striking against the head and the Athletic pack shoving the Tondu 8 backwards. Tondu attempted to put a hand in the scrum to dislodge the ball but it was spotted by referee Justin Williams who immediately ran under the posts to award a penalty try.

 

The Athletic took the restart and managed to retain possession kicking the ball off the park as Mr Williams signalled 80 minutes up. The Athletic deserved their victory, but Tondu also deserved their losing bonus point for a gritty defensive effort playing with 14 players for an hour.

 

Athletic team manager Paul Hearne summed up. “It was a very hard-fought victory against 14 men for an hour. In the first half particularly after dominating possession and territory we squandered some gilt-edged chances. The second half was a battle, but our persistence paid off in the end despite being denied when crossing the try line on three separate occasions.”

 

This coming Saturday the Athletic again meet last season’s Division 1 East Central rivals Treorchy at the same stage the 3rd Round of the National Plate, hoping for a better outcome as Treorchy also currently 2nd in their Division narrowly secured a 20-18 victory.

 

 

There doesn't appear to be any tagged photos.

Upload and Tag Photos

Comment
You must be signed in to add comments
Comments
|