Division Three West

Pontyberem 13 Tycroes 17

Returning to league action, Tycroes travelled down the Gwendraeth Valley to Pontyberem for this Division Three West encounter.

Although lying at the bottom of the table, Ponty’s league position does not reflect the standard of rugby they are playing, with several quality players returning to the fold, a win is not far away.

Making most of the running early on, the Ponty backs looked dangerous and only a loose pass, well read by Dean Bromham, was their undoing as the Tycroes fly-half scampered 60 metres to score in the corner. Carwyn Richards missed the conversion.

After going quickly behind and against the run of play, Ponty got back into the game on 20 minutes when Nico Setaro slotted the first of his penalties.

The Tycroes scrum seemed to fall foul of the referee’s interpretation and was penalised again late on in the first half allowing Setaro to take Ponty into the lead.

Immediately after the break, Ponty’s backs broke through the Tycroes line, allowing centre James Stevenson to score, Setaro kicked the extras.

With the game slipping away, the Tycroes coaches rang the changes and brought on Tim Rees and Charlie Randal.

The substitution paid instant dividends with Tycroes taking on the home forwards and driving them back at every opportunity.

The homesters saw wing Chris Mathias and hooker Marc Jones see yellow and their ill-discipline proved crucial.

Down to thirteen men, there was no way the home team could hold out the Tycroes juggernaut pack and Randal crossed for a try on 61 minutes, Richards missed the conversion.

With Tycroes now chasing down the lead, Bromham pinned Ponty back in their own 22.

The visitors claimed the advantage on 70 minutes after the hosts failed to deal with a driving maul. The referee deemed the maul illegally stopped and wasted no time awarding a penalty try. Richards converted.

With only ten minutes remaining Tycroes were able to keep Ponty at bay and hold on to win 17-13.

The win took Tycroes up to third in the league.

They entertain Llanybydder next week, kick off 2.30pm.

A warm welcome was given to debutant Mathew Davies who replaced Jonathan Tancock on the wing.