Honours were even at the Arms Park as a late Shaun Conner penalty goal earned Neath a draw with Cardiff in the Welsh Premiership.
As the March winds blew in, Neath fans will blame blustery conditions for Conner’s injury-time drop-goal attempt sailing wide.
That would have sealed all the points for the visitors, but the match ended 20-20.
Connor’s last-gasp points-snatching fifth penalty goal of the evening being the last points-scoring action of a heated game on a cold Cardiff night.
Early sparring resulted in an exchange of penalty goals from Iestyn Harris – on loan from Wales’ RBS Six Nations training camp – and the Neath No. 10.
The first try-scoring action came when Iestyn Harris provided the spark for a Cardiff brace. Intelligent passes to first Craig Morgan after 15 minutes, and then to Anthony Sullivan five minutes late resulted in scores. Harris converted one to extend the advantage to 15-3.
But Neath winger Kevin James then stormed over for a quick-fire reply, making the score 15-8.
Just before the break tempers flared between Neath captain Gareth Llewellyn and Cardiff’s Canadian No. 8 Dan Baugh. The duelling duo took a 10-minute break for an imitation of a John Ruiz and Roy Jones Jr weigh-in.
The second half scoring began with two three-point place kicks from Connor – one from within his own territory that cut the Cardiff lead to just one point at 15-14.
Soon after Cardiff replacement, ex Neath man Dean Dewdney, strengthened the home side’s lead with a typical forward’s try. But crucially, no conversion was added to keep Neath within one score at 20-14.
And Neath were not finished. As the game rolled into the final quarter the Welsh All Blacks were causing Cardiff problems, and the Blue and Blacks were displaying the ill discipline that has been the topic of many a pub conversation this year.
And when playing a side with a kicker as consistent as Conner, it is likely penalties will directly transpose into points.
And that is precisely what happened. Two kicks from Conner levelled the scores at 20-20.
Neath’s Lyn Jones was the happier of the two bosses.
“At the end of the day I’m glad we got something out of the game,” he said.
His Cardiff counterpart, Dai Young said: “In the end it was a game we should have won.”
Cardiff: Craig Morgan; Nick Walne, Jamie Robinson, Pieter Muller, Anthony Sullivan; Iestyn Harris, Ryan Powell; John Yapp, Peter Rogers, Tim Payne, Heino Senekal, John Tait (capt), Dan McShane, Dan Baugh, Robin Sowden-Taylor.
Replacements: Aled Jones, Greg Woods, Adam Jones, Luke Tait, Dean Dewdney, Nick Robinson, Donavan van Vuuren
Neath: Adrian Durston; Kevin James, Allan Bateman, D Tiueti, Shane Williams; Shaun Connor, P Horgan; Paul James, Steve Jones, Adam Jones, Steve Martin, Gareth Llewellyn (capt), Alfie Mocelutu, Steve Tandy, Rowland Phillips.
Replacements: James Storey, Shaun Connor, Adam Matthews, Jamie Ringer, Lyndon Bateman, Andy Newman, Andrew Millward.
