Division Three

Tycroes 27 Llanelli Wanderers 24

After the long festive holidays, Tycroes were back in action at the weekend, entertaining Llanelli Wanderers at Cae Gelli.

After several days of heavy rain it was feared that the fixture would prove to be another game falling foul of the weather but a dedicated band of helpers managed to clear the remaining water on the field.

With Tycroes playing down the slope in the first half, it was the hosts who were applying all the early pressure and outside-half Dean Bromham rounded the Wanderers defence to score the first try. Bromham also stepped up to slot over the successful conversion.

With Tycroes playing all the rugby a mistake wide out allowed the Wanderers to break upfield and wing Dan Daniels to race in and score in the corner. The conversion was missed.

Another mistake from the kick off again let the Wanderers break up field and after switching play from right to left, full back Nick Gale ran in to score to the left of the posts. Gale made the most for his earlier slip by slotting the conversion over.

After falling behind, Tycroes' errors were compounded with indiscipline and Gale coolly slotted over the resultant penalty.

With Tycroes applying pressure on the Wanderers line a string of penalties allowed the home team to take a scrum 10 metres out from the line, and with the pack having the upper hand they pushed the Wanderers pack back to their own line where they were forced to collapse the scrum, giving the referee no option but to award a penalty try. Bromham again converted.

Wrong options and indiscipline at the start of the second half allowed the Wanderers to take a 24-14 lead with full back Gale kicking five penalties.

At this point in the game there looked to be no way back into the game, but with such a dominant pack there was always a danger of repeating their first half try, and on 68 minutes another five-yard scrum on the Wanderers' line yielded the same result - a collapsed scrum and a penalty try, with Bromham converting.

The Wanderers cause was not helped when their loose head prop was shown yellow for the infringement.

With the away team down to fourteen men, Tycroes broke at will and only by giving penalties away were the away side able to stop the hosts running riot, but with home full back Carwyn Richards making the most of the his new pair of kicking boots from Santa, he was able to slot over two late penalties to steal the game from the Wanderers and secure a massive Tycroes win.

A late kick and rush down field by Gale saw the Wanderer in clear space with no one at home in the Tycroes. Racing towards the try line using his footballing skills with a winning try in sight, a quick surge by replacement wing Jonathan Tancock saw him foil the try and allow the home defence to get back into position and kill off the game.

Next week, Tycroes will need to be on top form when they visit Llanybydder.