Merthyr skipper Craig Locke was worryingly carried off on a stretcher as the reigning champions crashed to a 23-17 defeat in the opening game of their title defence against RGC 1404 in Colwyn Bay, while both Cardiff and Aberavon had last-gasp kicks to thank for their successes.
New signing Joe Scrivens landed a magnificent touchline conversion to earn Cardiff a 24-23 victory over arch-rivals Pontypridd at the Arms Park, while another new outside half, Aled Thomas, kicked the Wizards to a 27-26 triumph at the Brewery Field as they downed battling Bridgend at the death.
RGC 1404 rose magnificently to the occasion to give new head coach Matt Silva a massive boost in his first game in charge and prove they are going to be highly competitive once again this season despite losing several players.
The Ironmen lost Locke after 35 minutes when he was caught up in a forward drive up to and over the home line that almost earned a try. He had to be carried off and was replaced by Hemi Barnes.
At that stage the trusty boot of Billy McBryde had edged RGC into a 9-3 lead, but three penalties in reply from Merthyr’s new outside half, Rhys Jones, soon tied the scores and it was 9-9 at the break.
The champions then flexed their muscles nine minutes after the re-start when the ball was moved wide from a line-out on the home 22 and Matthew Jarvis crossed for an unconverted try. But the Ironmen’s full back went from hero to zero pretty quickly when he was penalised inside his own 22 three minutes later as RGC pressed and he picked up a yellow card.
No sooner had he departed than RGC struck with a cross field kick in the visitors’ 22 that was tapped down into the hands of a grateful Rhys Tudor who went over for his side’s first try of the season. That levelled the scores once again and McBryde’s conversion edged RGC back in front at 16-14.
The Gogs could sniff a famous victory to make up for the bitter disappointment of losing 28-24 at The Wern at the end of last season. A McBryde kick to the corner set up an attacking line-out and the driving maul did the trick.
McBryde added the extras to give his side a nine point cushion with a quarter-of-an-hour to go. Jones cut the gap to a single score with a penalty six minutes from time, but that was as close as Merthyr could get.
Newport were forced to survive a late scare at Eugene Cross Park, yet were still good enough to get their season off to a winning start with a 29-23 win over Gwent rivals Ebbw Vale.
The visitors’ took a commanding 22-6 lead into the interval with scores from David Richards, Ryan Gardner and a penalty try. But the Steelmen refused to throw in the towel and tries from Ashley Sweet and Stephen Ireland set-up a grandstand finish.
In the end, though, they had to make do with a losing bonus point. Full back Dan Haymond, who ended with 13 points, gave the Steelmen an early lead with two penalties, but Newport hit back with a cracking try from Richards at the corner.
Ebbw imploded before half-time with Matthew Flanagan’s clearance kick charged down allowing Richards to touch down and score. Things went from bad to worse for the hosts when they conceded a penalty try for illegally bringing down a driving lineout which was galloping towards the try line with ease.
Not only did they concede seven points, but hooker Joe Franchi was sent to the sin bin at the stroke of half-time. Greg Woods’ side came out fighting in the early stages of the second-half and were given hope when Newport centre Adam Jones received a yellow card for taking out a man without the ball.
Sweet then crashed over from the resulting line-out. But their comeback was short lived as Richards sliced through their defence for his second try of the evening. Newport blindside Josh Skinner was sent to the sin bin for preventing Sam Ireland taking a quick tap.
Ebbw Vale lay siege to the Newport try line late on with scrum-half Ireland grabbing a late score but it was too little, too late.
Scrivens announced his arrival at the Arms Park from Bedwas with a touchline conversion that immediately earned him hero status at the end of a classic, full blooded derby. The Blue & Blacks hit the ground running with two tries in a blistering opening quarter, but Ponty somehow clawed their way back into things.
A training ground move saw skipper Dafydd Lockyer race to the posts for a try that Ben Jones converted and the 14 point deficit had been halved by the break. If that gave the visitors a boost, the rocket that head coach Justin Burnell gave them at the break turned them into a totally different prospect in the second half.
Burnell turned the air so blue in the dressing room that the TV cameras couldn’t broadcast any of it. He won’t have cared much about that as he saw his forwards dominate, Joel Raikes and his half-back partner Jones dictate and with just over an hour gone it was Ponty who had hit the front.
Cardiff may have beaten their nearest neighbours 34-15 on New Year’s Day to notch their first win over them in a decade, but Lockyer’s men were determined to get back to business as usual. Having recovered from those two early tries form Edd Howley and James Ratti, both converted by Gareth Thompson, they were all over the home side like a bad rash in the second half.
Jones kept on hitting the mark off the kicking tee – three penalties and a touchline conversion of No 8 Morgan Sieniawski’s try while Gatt was in the sin-bin – and Cardiff were all at sea and trailing 23-17 going into the final 10 minutes.
But they somehow managed to stay in the fight and when they picked up a couple of penalties to gain a foothold in the Ponty 22 they remained patient and purposeful. Man of the match Benn Williams kept bringing his runners onto the ball and Howley eventually squeezed over in the left corner for his second try.
All that was left was for ex-Bedwas outside half Scrivens to do his stuff. He held his nerve and stroked home the matchwinning conversion to earn his side a victory in a game that looked lost for long periods of the second half.
The Brewery Field saluted former Bridgend chairman Derrick King before the first match of the new season, but not even Owen Howe’s big boot could stop Aberavon from stealing victory with the last kick of another epic encounter.
The Ravens roared into a 13 point lead thanks to two penalties and a conversion from Owen Howe after wing Mike Powell had charged over. With emotions still running high following the death of King the Brewery Field was buzzing and hoping for the perfect send-off.
But the Wizards fought back and thanks to their experienced debutant Aled Thomas they clawed their way back into the contest. The former Scarlets, Dragons and Wales Sevens stalwart played at full back for Carmarthen Quins last season, but looked cool and accomplished in the No 10 jersey for his latest club.
He converted his own try on the half-hour mark and added a penalty before the break. That cut the gap to a mere three points, but then the Aberavon skipper Joe Tomalin-Reeves not only picked up a yellow card, but also conceded a penalty try.
The back row man was spotted by referee Mike English preventing Powell from taking what would have been a scoring pass and he had no hesitation in issuing the double whammy to the visitors. That made in 20-10 to the home side at the break.
It didn’t take long, though, for Aberavon to hit back and two minutes after the re-start their lock Sam Williams crashed over for a try that Thomas again improved. Howe replied with his third penalty to stretch the lead to six points, but Aberavon refused to go away.
They used their powerful scrum to earn a penalty try in the 53rd minute, forcing the Bridgend pack to fold on their line, and that gave them the lead for the first time in the match. The stakes rose and the home side lifted their effort to earn a 78th minute penalty that Howe made the most of to regain the lead.
That looked like the winner until the Wizards conjured up a bit of magic with the final play of the game to earn a penalty that Thomas kicked to win the match right at the death.
Swansea got their season off to a flying start with 33-5 bonus-point win over arch-rivals Llanelli at St Helen’s. Two tries from Max Nagy laid the bed rock for victory, but it was the hard work of the home pack that set the platform.
Llanelli were dealt an early blow when they lost captain Johnny Lewis to injury after just two minutes. James Davies kicked Swansea into the lead with a couple of penalties before Ashley Sutton crafted a try for Rhydian Williams for the visitors.
With their pack dominating proceedings the home side chose to kick to the corner from a penalty and, after man of the match Shaun O’Rourke had risen to gather the ball, Jon Fox was driven over for the try.
A well worked move by the Swansea backs resulted in a second try for the All Whites when Fox threw a scoring pass out wide to Nagy. Nagy struck again in the second half, along with Brandon Wood and the Whites were big winners in the end.
