Principality Premiership

Llandovery 13 Aberavon 10

On their last league visit to Llandovery back in April , the Wizards had come away with a 10-10 draw but in another tight match they failed with late goal kicks that would have tied or won the game for them, writes Tom Hughes

“That was too close for comfort” said Drovers coach Lyndon Lewis. “We need to up the ante considerably if we are going to have any success against Neath at the Gnoll this Saturday.”

“We are finding it difficult to get any consistency into our game at the moment, We were on top early on but were then were forced onto the back foot.”

“Aberavon were a much improved side from last year. We are pleased to take four points but we were pushed all the way.

“Aberavon are a well coached side under my old pal Jason Hyatt and posed many problems for us. We certainly need to improve upon this performance.”

It was ironic too that Lee Evans, a summer signing from the Drovers missed those vital kicks, the last two five minutes and then two minutes from time respectively

Llandovery had looked shaky the week before at Ebbw Vale and once again put in an unconvincing display in their second league game of the season.

They started brightly enough with a smartly taken corner try from Scarlets right wing Kristian Phillips and went futher ahead with a penalty by fly half James Garland but the lack of cohesion between forwards and backs left the score at 8-0 at half time.

Any complacency in home ranks was shaken soon after the break when wing Stef Andrews ran hard and fast through some fragile tackling to get the Aberavon try converted by second half replacement Evans.

When Evans added a penalty to take the lead 10-8 the momentum seemed to be swinging the Wizards way but a break and clever run from Garland and good finishing from flanker Shaun Miles regained the lead for the Drovers with 14 minutes to go.

Aberavon piled on the pressure and forced the home defence into giving away a number of penalties a the scrum –an issue that forwards coach Euros Evans will no doubt be addressing this week - and it give Evans the chance to punish his old colleagues.

The usually reliable Waunarlwydd product failed to find the mark to leave Llandovery coach Lyndon Lewis, a former Aberavon back, breathing a long sigh of relief.