THE Warriors travelled to the top of the Afan Valley to Glyncorrwg and helped put on a good show of rugby, even if they couldn’t quite get the result.
Report by Gwilym Lewis
Despite the recent weather, there was a good surface to play on and both sides took advantage with nearly 100 points scored. That’s not to say it was a free running extravaganza with plenty of physical stuff up front.
Glyncorrwg started quickly. Moving the ball away from the pack they crossed for two early tries from Luke McConnel and Robert Jones. Inevitably this was a wake up call for the Warriors and they started to go through the gears. The pack rumbled about and after they had gone close once or twice, Dai Haines opened the scoring, soon followed by prop Willy Brown.
From there the game was a real contest and if the home team always seemed to have the upper hand, they could never quite get away with the Warriors always snapping at their heels.
Jordan Evans led the pink attack collecting two fine tries and adding a conversion. Aged veteran Gavin Rees showed he still has some gas when he rounded the posts and Dan Richards sneaked through a gap. Despite using 5 kickers, they missed only one conversion which proved important.
For the Warriors Adam Fussell got two fine tries, rounding the defence impressively for his second. Hard working lock Darren Pollitt stretched over and Ben Win got just reward for filling in at scrum half when he got the last score just at the death.
Whilst they didn’t get the win, the Warriors certainly enjoyed the fixture and will be pleased with the form performances of forwards Gareth Ladd and Gareth Emery whilst full back Dan John looked sharp throughout.
The Warriors will hope to carry this form into a busy Christmas period which starts with a Memorial Match for Lewis Jones against Felinfoel on Dec 22nd.
Warriors: Dan John, Simon Day, Adam Fussell, Jon Kearney, Lloyd Crawley, Jamie Evans, Ben Win, Gareth Emery, James Duke, Will Browne (Yousseff El Tawab), John Horwood(Dan Grinter), Darren Pollitt, Jordan Jones, Dai Haines, Gareth Ladd
A cracking day up in the Afan Valley. Amazingly our convey got all the way to the top of the Afan Valley without loss and without Jamie getting car sick. We even had more players than out hosts with Dan Grinter and Willy Browne taking turns to look pretty in pink.
Good to have Ben back on the field and the team did pretty well with Gareth Ladd and Dan John pushing Dinosaur as man of the match and some good contributions from Gareth Emery and Pretty Polly.
Top moments were Jamie’s massive knock on and Special Ks big hit on one of the Croeserw boys – Dan Grinter.
Afterwards there was drinking, chocolates and our plaque in pride of place over the bar (if a bit wonky). Thanks to Gavin and the Glyncorrwg boys – hard but fair (our time will come). Also nice to see Sam Tan supporting, could have done with them for our bus in NZ.
