Principality Premiership

Llandovery 13 Cardiff 22

All good things come to an end and so it was at Church Bank on Saturday when the Drovers were second best in most departments to a well organised Cardiff, writes Huw S Thomas.

Llandovery were looking for an eighth successive won over the capital city club, not having lost to them since November 2010 but this time they rarely looked like keeping that enviable record going.

They slip into seventh place and down into the bottom half of the table, and because of the disruption of the British and Irish Cup will not be in action again until November 1 when they travel to Bridgend.

The Blue and Blacks had a rock solid set piece, tackled furiously whenever Llandovery threatened and simply made far fewer errors than their lacklustre opponents.

The 43 times capped Scottish international prop Bruce Douglas was the cornerstone of the Cardiff scrum, lock James Goode ruled the line outs and from one to 15 through to replacements the visitors seldom shirked or missed a tackle.

The Drovers badly missed flu victim lock Bryn Griffiths and despite having a number of good chances to score tries, all they could muster was the one solitary touchdown in the second half by centre Adam Warren.

Scarlets coach Wayne Pivac went away impressed by the performance of Llandovery tight head Wyn Jones whose barnstorming runs made him his side’s outstanding player but must have been disappointed at Llandovery inability to prise open the Cardiff defence.

Cardiff took the lead with two Dean Gunter penalties before wing George Watkins went through for a try after a smart blind-side move from his fellow backs.

The Drovers responded with two close range penalties from fly-half Ian Brooks but just after the home side lost a line-out near their own line, Gunter kicked another penalty.

Brooks missed a sitter of a penalty soon after the break and when visiting skipper Johnathan Edwards was yellow carded, the Drovers failed to take advantage.

Yellow cards for Goode and opposite number Matthew Harbut disrupted play but it was Cardiff who profited when the much-travelled Douglas burrowed over from close range.

Momentarily stung into action, Llandovery centre Adam Warren slipped through cleverly for a try, converted by replacement James Garland, before another Gunter penalty made it 22-13 to the Blue and Blacks.

The Drovers pressed for all their worth without ever being precise enough. Replacement Lee Rees made some lovely runs but there was no way through a very sound defence to leave Cardiff deserved winners.