Aberavon 12 v RGC 16 - match report

The home side took the lead on the 6 minute mark, after RGC had started the game on the front foot.

It was Wizards winger Shaun Pearce who sprinted through the tackles to touchdown, with Josh Garland adding the extras.

Alex Schwarz was involved in a lot of the play in the half, and it was a clever reverse pass that set up another RGC attack, but it ended with some good Aberavon defence.

Credit to the Wizards who were winning the breakdown battles and managing to turnover RGC on many occasions.

Centres Tom Hughes and Tiaan Loots where trying to punch some holes into the defence but came up against some crunching tackles.

The Aberavon line speed was also causing RGC problems as they were unable to get the ball away.

Jacob Botica got some point on the board with a penalty Those points were soon added to when Andrew Williams got the try, after a good set piece enabled the maul to be set up and it rumbled over. Botica added the conversion. Scrum half Schwarz was once again setting up the play with good work from the back of the pack.

As the half grew to a close Aberavon looked for another score but they couldn’t find the breakthrough.

The 2nd half started with a Botica penalty but from that point it was the home side that had the upper hand.

Andrew Williams and Harri Evans both made some important tackles, as the Wizzards broke the gain-line.

The penalty count was going in Aberavons favour and the pushed towards the RGC line. The Gogs defence worked well, and crucially as the Wizzards were on the try line RGC manged to regain the ball and clear the line.

Aberavon them went through multiple phases but were pushed back 20 yards through more tough defence.

The game then became stretched and both through hard running and strong tackling players began to tire.

As the game reached 72 minutes Evans and Loots dug deep and managed to spur RGC into an attack, and for the 1st time in the half the visitors were high up in the Aberavon half. The attacking resulted in a penalty to RGC and Botica hit the crucial 3 points.

The remaining 5 minutes were played out in frantic fashion, and on the whistle Aberavon picked up a try when winger Pearce went over in the corner.

Post Match

Head Coach Mark Jones credit his sides defence in the victory “Delighted to come away with a win, but it also shows how far we have come when feel slightly disappointed in our performance and we could have made the game more comfortable really.”

“Aberavon are a good side, and we respect them and the rugby they play so to keep the try count down to 2 and with one of them coming at the end is pleasing."

“We made afar to many errors at the breakdown which gave them the turnover ball, which then gave them more of the ball in the 2nd half. Teams do challenge us at the breakdown, and we don’t always commit with numbers but sometimes we do need some help from the referee in regards to the legality around the ball.”

“The good thing is that we were tested, and that sets us up for more of the same next week when we play Bargoed.”

Updated 11:55 - 31 Aug 2019 by Gary Williams