ASDA LEAGUE DIVISION ONE NEWS
Disallowed tries in the past two weeks have turned a pair of victories into a loss and a draw, and Barber was a frustrated man after Saturday’s 18-17 loss at home to a well-performed Cwmllynfell side.
“It’s annoying for all of us at the moment,” he said. “We had a tough start to the season, playing some of the top teams, but we’ve been very competitive. Cwmllynfell are right at the top of the division and we looked as good as them for large periods of the game.
“It was frustrating to have a perfectly good try disallowed in the first half, especially after last weekend’s draw (against Waunarlwydd). In that game we scored in the last minute, but the player was ruled to have made a double movement.
“When things aren’t going well for a team, you don’t get the breaks, but we showed some good spirit against Cwmllynfell, and we’ll come through this patch of bad luck.”
Division leaders Bonymaen continued on their merry way, racking up win number seven with a 27-17 victory at Merthyr. Bonymaen scored tries through Neil Wilcox, James Davies and Leighton Johnson, but needed the boot of prolific points-scorer Gareth James (three conversions and two penalty goals) to keep their noses in front of a plucky Merthyr side.
Narberth did things the hard way, grinding out a 26-24 win at Builth Wells to cling on to third place in the table, while Caerphilly came from behind to edge Llanharan 19-18. Narberth fullback Adrian Killa was sent off for a dangerous tackle midway through the second half, but not before converting fly-half Mike Georgeo’s try. The two points proved crucial as stormed into contention on the back of a Ben Duggan try and 15 points from the boot of Rob Lloyd.
At Virginia Park, in-form Caerphilly fullback James Balfrey kicked the winning penalty goal in the 67th minute as his side moved past opponents Llanharan in the middle of the table. Llangennech outside-half Mark Jones scored 25 points as his side confirmed their reputation as one of the danger teams in the division with a 40-21 win over Ystrad Rhondda. Jones scored a try and kicked eight goals, with backline team-mates John Morgan (two) and Lee Williams also bagging five-pointers.
Newbridge let a 7-0 halftime lead slip to a 21-14 loss as Waunarlwydd secured their fourth win of the season with three second-half tries through Michael Harris (two) and Alan Richards, who converted all of them.
Whitland also came from behind as mid-table UWIC begin to fall off the pace. The Students led 13-0 at the break, but Whitland ran in four tries to steal the points. Outside-half Aled Davies scored two of them, and converted all of them.
Fleur de Lys are still holding up the table, returning from their trip to Beddau with a 25-5 loss to ponder – their seventh straight defeat.