League One West

Ammanford 29 Whitland 25

Ammanford claimed their first back-to-back wins for over two years on Saturday with a 29-25 victory over Whitland in League One West.

A solid start saw Ammanford pressurise the visitors’ line and a hefty clearance could only find full-back James Owen on the halfway line.

Owen slipped his way past three defenders before stepping a fourth and powering his way past another to open the scoring.

Some questionable refereeing decisions put the hosts on the back foot when the dominant Ammanford scrum was penalised for the wheeling.

A quick tap and two phases saw Whitland score near the posts and take a 7-5 lead.

Howqever, Ammanford replied and in some style to claim two more tries inside a blistering ten-minute spell.

First a flowing move created an excellent angle for wing Gary Stephens to burst over on his first outing of the season. Outside-half Rhydian Morris added the extras.

The hosts followed up with a pressure scrum on the Whitland five-metre line which saw their sliced clearance kick go more up than out and Morris was on hand to gather, score and convert for a 19-7 lead.

Whitland back into the game with two penalties – the second of which earned Ammanford flanker Jake Baker a spell in the sin-bin – and saw the sides go into the interval with the 14-man hosts leading 19-13.

The visitors were back in charge just three minutes after the restart however when a 22-metre line-out went badly wrong for Ammanford and Whitland got the better of the resultant scrum to claim a converted try.

The Whitland front eight took a strong hold of proceedings and powered their way to a third try and a six-pointy advantage.

But Ammanford grafted hard and slowly reclaimed the impetus.

A Morris penalty made it 25-22 and a strong forward drive saw Baker make up for his early misdemeanours, taking two defenders with him as he forced his way over to score and earn the hosts a bonus-point try. An excellent touchline conversion made the score 29-25.

Whitland came back strongly in the last 10 minutes, but some last ditch defence saw the hosts hold out for a crucial, confidence-boosting win.

Ammanford host Brynamman next Saturday in the WRU Plate competition.