Aberavon 28 v RGC 14 - match report

RGC were left to rue some handling errors and discipline as Aberavon ran in 2 tries in the last 10 minutes to claim a win in the Principality Premiership

Both sides looked to get a foothold on the game early with a couple of breaks from either side testing the defences.

It was RGC that put the score on the board after some good work from the forwards, the worked the ball well edging closer the line before Captain Maredydd Francis pick the ball up and barged over under the posts. Botica kicked the simple conversion.

Minutes later Francis was given a yellow and his side were a man down and the lead had been closed by a Steff Williams penalty.

RGC did well to stop Aberavon from scoring any more points, as even with a man down the kept the ball and play in the home sides half.

The visitors were dealt another blow when Jacob Botica was taken off with an injury, and as a result Alex Schwarz dropped to fly-half and Efan Jones came on at scrum-half.

It was turning into a game of tackles and defence as both sides were racking up the tackle count, trying to keep the ball close in wet conditions.

Will Bryan was next to come off with an injury with teenager Dan Own on in his place.

Aberavon kicked another penalty from the boot of Williams before RGC went close with a Rhys Williams run, but the winger was held up on the line.

On the halftime whistle Aberavon took the lead with a 3rd penalty from Williams.

Aberavon started brighter in the 2nd half and looked quicker with ball in hand, especially down the flanks and the injury tally increased for RGC when Tiaan Loots came off after a tackle for Ianto Parri.

Mathew Jarvis extended the lead for Aberavon after he evaded a couple of tackles to rub over with Williams kicking the extras.

The conditions were easing with the rain stopping but both sides swapped a number of kicks to try and claim some territory.

As the half went on RGC began to build some foundations and when given penalties opted for the kick to touch and use the line-out and drive, after a couple of attempts the pack rumbled on and got over the line for the try, and it looked like Huw Worthington got the score. Bagshaw on his 100th appearance got the conversion to close the lead to 2 points.

The restart was a poor one from an RGC perspective and they couldn’t collect the ball, and the pressure was put back on the RGC defence. It was disappointing as they had worked their way back into the game at that point.

Pressure was soon to be increased after Joe Simpson was given a yellow minutes after coming on as sub. The RGC defence was made to work even harder and they did well to keep the try out after Aberavon were camped on the line.

That man advantage and also some tiredness with the early changes kicked in on the 70th minute when Aberavon had the numbers on the wing and Ben Davies scored.

Even with that score RGC were still in the match and the worked the phases well to get into the Wizards 22 meter line, but when they were turned over Aberavon broke down the pitch and fly-half Williams scored and converted.

Updated 00:00 - 3 Sep 2019 by Gary Williams