SWALEC NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 8 2013 Llanharan 17 13 Bargoed

Llanharan struck top form in this Friday night encounter with second placed Bargoed,

winning despite twice being handicapped by yellow cards.

The visitors had lost just once to leaders Ebbw Vale in a successful season and also knocked

premiership team Bridgend out of the Swalec cup to earn a quarter final tie at Neath.

They arrived understandably full of confidence, but we delivered the sort of performance that

our young and talented squad was always capable of.

A rousing team talk by head coach Matthew Lloyd before the kick off set the tone and

skipper Nathan Huish did the rest once the game started, leading his pack in a storming

display.

We won through capitalising on the chances that came our way, our scores protected by an

often heroic and stern defence.

But the first ten minutes of the game belonged to the away side who, after our kick off went

straight into touch, started their strong forward driving play, putting pressure on the

Llanharan line to bring a penalty from Josh Prosser.

However, straight from the restart the home forwards drove down the right-hand side of the

pitch, allowing the ball to be spread wide for wing Rhys Walker to break the Bargoed

defence and give our side the lead.

The game was developing into an exciting end to end affair before Bargoed gained the

initiative towards the end of the half.

They spurned an easy kick at goal and despite some ferocious tackling a series of drives

ended with their No 5 Darren Lynch strolling over in the corner for a well-deserved try.

It was a passage of play which also brought a yellow card for Llanharan’s No, 9 Tom Marley,

and with Bargoed already 8-5 up we were clearly facing poor odds.

A knock on from the restart after half time did not bode well either, but again the away team

ignored kicks at goal as they put pressure on.

Llanharan’s' defence held out though, and the ball was cleared up field from a penalty to ease

the pressure.

Back to full numbers the red shirted home side broke out of defence thanks to a fine run by

wing Harry Davies. The consequent pressure ended with a line out from which prop James

Greenfield charged over for an excellent try converted by Harley Thomson to give Huish’s

men a 12-8 lead

In a stirring contest Llan fell behind again, an unconverted try in the corner for No 15

Andrew McLaughlin pushing his team a point ahead.

Llanharan were undaunted, and began to take the initiative with typically robust play from

the likes of Bill Carey, Justin Benfield and James Locke. Their efforts resulted in a charge

down of a Bargoed kick on the 10-metre line, and after some fine footwork and dribbling

skills wing Harry Davies scored making it 17-13 to Llanharan with 10 minutes to go.

Bargoed tried hard to overturn the lead, their offensive resulting in another yellow card for

Llanharan, back row man Lewis Young this time on the receiving end of Julian’ Smith’s

sanction.

But despite their best efforts, the determination and team spirit of their opponents kept them

out and we had recorded perhaps our best victory of the campaign

LLANHARAN:

15 LOREN QUICK

14 HARRY DAVIES

13 MORGAN WILLIAMS

12 HARLEY THOMSON

11 RHYS WALKER

• 10 RYAN EVANS

9 TOM MARLEY

1 JAMES GREENFIELD

2 NATHAN HUISH (C)

3 TOM PIPER

4 BILL CAREY

5 JUSTIN BENFIELD

6 HUW THOMAS

7 LEWIS YOUNG (SCOTT MALONE)

8 JAMES LOCKE

Home tries - Rhys Walker, James Greenfield, Harry Davies. Con - Harley Thomson

Bargoed tries – Darren Lynch, Andrew McLoughlin. Pen – Josh Prosser

Report by Hugh Smith. Photos by Richie Jenkins