Cup delight for eight-try Drovers (From South Wales Guardian)

Cup delight for eight-try Drovers

5:50am Wednesday 30th May 2012 in Sport

Tovali Cup Llandovery 50 Glynneath 10 Premiership side Llandovery won their fourth Tovali Cup when they beat Division Two West champions Glynneath at Dunvant, writes Huw S Thomas.

Glynneath had won 19 of their 22 league games and were in a confident mood, having just won the Glamorgan Silver Ball competition, but could not match the physicality and speed of the Drovers.

The Drovers were delighted that the club claimed a piece of silverware at the end of a long, hard season and were pleased with the performance of some of the squad’s younger members.

“We were disappointed to so narrowly miss out on the playoffs but this win will give the team the pleasure of finishing on a high note,” said coach Lyndon Lewis.

Llandovery included veteran prop Andrew Jones (playing at hooker) who had played in all three sides to have won what many still refer to as the WestWales Cup.

The 38-year-old played in the 1998, 2002 and 2003 winning sides and again played a leading role in the win over Glynneath, running forcefully and foraging successfully.

Glynneath started the game strongly and deserved their 3-0 lead after a penalty by winger Johnny Morgan. Gradually the strength and technique of the Drovers began to tell, and after a prolonged drive by the forwards, prop Dean Howells went over for the first try.

This was quickly answered by Glynneath with a cleverly weighted cross-field kick leading to a try by Johnny Morgan, which he also converted.

The Llandovery back row of Nio Aiono, Richard Brooks and captain Lloyd Phillips began to take a grip on things, leading to further tries from centre Jack Roberts and second- rower Matthew Harbutt.

Both were converted by Mike Evans to give the Premiership team a 19-10 advantage at halftime.

Both sides were making plenty of errors, but the willingness of Llandovery to run the ball from anywhere on the pitch was creating plenty of openings. Jack Roberts, running good lines, scored his second try, followed by two more from substitutes Gerard Ellis and Shaun Miles, giving the Drovers a 38-10 lead.

Glynneath battled away gamefully, but Llandovery had too much fire-power and pace.

Tovali man of the Mmatch Jack Roberts completed his hat trick, with a final try coming from scrum-half Dan Newlands. Eight tries to one tells its own story.