So good was the Aberavon tackling in this match that quite often two of the Wizards tackled an Ulster runner, yet on two occasions they were down to 13 men.
The first half saw two yellows to the Wizards and after 41 minutes a third card was issued while in the last tense moments, young Luke Davies, already an emergency flanker moved up to prop and both Chris John and two-try hero Rob Dudley-Jones went off injured with no replacements.
It was not only heroic defence in somehow keeping the Ravens out, but Aberavon made strikes back with David Pritchard, who had his pie and chips only to find that Chris Morgans was hurt in the warm-up, burst away on a fine solo run to relieve the siege.
It was a game ruined in the first half by the whistle but suddenly it awoke though once again the injury count was high, but Gavin Ronan and Andrew Gwynne both made fine contributions off the bench.
For Dudley-Jones it was his best game for the Wizards and both Joe Gage and David Evans are two for the future, while there were debuts for replacements Alec Jenkins and Tom Sloane – the latter a fine-built prop – and a senior match for Luke Davies, who looked to put in a good shift.
After Ceiron Thomas and Tom O”Hagan (twice) kicked penalties, prop Ruaidrhi Murphy’s try made to 11-3 to Ulster then for 60 minutes they only managed one penalty.
A great forward effort saw Dudley-Jones cross and Thomas convert on the stroke of half-time and then came Ceiron’s best as he switched attack with splendid handling leaving Dudley-Jones on the left wing with 20 metres to go. He beat his man and raced at top speed in at the corner.
Penalties by Thomas and Josh Bingham followed and then came the best 25 minutes or so of tackling ever shown by the Wizards. Not one player flinched and the young men had every right to show their delight in a splendid victory.
The injury count saw Joe Tomalin-Reeves, Chris John, Sam Williams, Rob Dudley-Jones and James Bija all having to come off, yet the team still showed massive heart.
Up next for Aberavon is the trip to Rotherham next Saturday to face the Titans at Clifton Lane with a 3pm kick off.
