Despite winning the first leg of their play-off against the Division 1 East Central champions, Brecon only took a five point lead with them into the second leg in Ely. On the day it wasn’t enough as the Wanderers conjured up five tries to win 34-12 and 57-40 on aggregate.
It means the Wanderers will be back in the Championship after a two year gap next season after inflicting only the fourth competitive defeat of the season on Andy Powell’s men. Having kicked-off their season against Nelson on 1 September they ended on 18 May with a record of 28 wins in 32 matches and a record of 28 wins and 2 defeats.
As well as winning Division 1 East they also captured the WRU National Plate at Principality Stadium and played 12 matches in the last two months of an exhaustive season.
Victory for the Wanderers means they will join Ystalyfera, champions of Division 1 West Central and conquerors of Felinfoel in the West play-off final, as the two promoted teams from Division 1 into next season’s Championship. They will join the four relegated sides from the Principality Premiership – Neath, Cross Keys, Bargoed and Bedwas – in forming a highly competitive 14-team league with reigning champions Pontypool, Ystrad Rhondda, Narberth, Cardiff Met, Tata Steel, Trebanos, Beddau and Maesteg Quins next season.
Centres Cameron Gibbon and Josh Male, captain Aaron Fowler and full-back James Loxton grabbed the tries for the Wanderers, all of which were converted by outside half Luke Fish who also kicked two penalties. Brecon’s only reply came in the shape of four Dean Gunter penalties.
“We decided to look at the two legs of the play-offs as four quarters and it was all about not giving ourselves too big a mountain to club in the last two. We got an 84th minute try at Brecon to cut the gap to five points and that was crucial,” said Wanderers director of rugby, Martyn Fowler.
“After that we always felt we could do it on our own patch, although perhaps not in the style that we did. In the end, our fitness told and the work that our S&C coach Will Cusack has done with us all season really paid dividends.”
The Wanderers were last in the Championship in 2016/17 for a season and since then they have finished as runners-up to Ystrad Rhondda in Division 1 East Central last year and took the title by 10 clear points this winter, losing only eight games in 44 over the two seasons.
