30 Jan 10 - Talywain

LOST 11 - 13

 Abercarn welcomed table toppers Talywain to the Welfare Ground and straight from the kick-off  the visitors pinned the home side back and for the first 10 minutes Abercarn didn’t get out of their own half.

Both sides showed a willingness to run the ball and Talywain were first on the scoreboard when the home side were penalised for an infringement at a ruck. However the Abercarn pack was in fine form and appeared to be able to disrupt Talywain’s scrum at will.

Gethin Patterson was able to level the scores with a successful penalty kick, only for the visitors to add a further 3 points minutes later when an Abercarn forward handled in the ruck. With the majority of possession it seemed inevitable that the home side would score but a succession of poor handling and bad decision making meant that at half-time Talywain held onto their 6 points to 3 lead.

The second half produced much the same as the first with Abercarn’s forwards having the upper hand but the home side unable to score. Gethin Patterson levelled the scores when a Talywain prop was penalised for boring in at a scrum.

On a rare visit to the home side’s half and totally against the run of play and with their scrum going backwards Talywain’s outside-half had a simple run around to score a fine try under the posts. The successful conversion kick extended Talywain’s lead to 13 – 6.

Abercarn mounted attack after attack and eventually winger Guy Glastonbury crossed the line. However, the conversion kick was unsuccessful and try as they may the home side could not add any more points and the game ended 11 points to 13 in Talywain’s favour.

The Abercarn forwards had done all that was expected of them and it was hard to understand why the side are playing so well but just cannot finish. This was a game that Abercarn should have won and will give the coaches plently to think about prior to next Saturdays rearranged home fixture against New Tredegar which is kicking off early at 1:00 pm prior to the England Wales Six Nations clash.