National Bowl

Cwmgors – 21

Betws - 18

Betws made the short trip up the Amman Valley to face Cwmgors in the second round of the WRU National Bowl.

Betws were struck again by a plight of front row injuries meaning once again this season they had to start the game with only 14 men.

Betws were the first on the scoreboard after Cwmgors were pinged for not rolling away in the ruck. Player Coach, Adrian Thomas, stepped up and slotted over the points from 40 yards out to give Betws an early lead.

Cwmgors hit back with a penalty of their own to even up the game at 3-3

The hosts were eager to add more points to their tally and went straight back on the attack, earning a penalty which was kicked.

The extra man meant gaps naturally started to show in the Betws defence which Cwmgors were able to exploit.

After a few nice phases of play, Cwmgors were able to cross the white-wash through scrum half Mathew Birt for the first try of the game, adding the extras to go 13-3 up.

Betws started the better of the two sides in the second half and looked like scoring their first try when skipper Gareth Comley made a lovely break before offloading to centre Daniel Madge who went around the fullback only to be caught yards from the line.

The Betws pressure finally paid off when ill-discipline from Cwmgors on their own line left the referee no option but to send two men to the bin for foul play.

Betws were now a man up for the first time in the game, but this didn’t last long. Scrum half, Anthony O’Neil, was sent to the bin minutes later for stopping Cwmgors’ Scrum half taking a quick penalty.

The game was now wide open, and Cwmgors used the space well: Kieron Ace crossing for an unconverted try.

Just as the game was getting away from Betws scrum half Dylan Rees sniped from the back of an attacking scrum and caught the Cwmgors defence napping. Heading for the corner, a great inside pass to flanker Ashley Jones let him cross for Betws’ first try. Adrian Thomas tried to add the extras from the corner but hit the woodwork.

A Thomas penalty narrowed the deficit further to just seven points, and soon the two sides were level.

Thomas intercepted a wayward Cwmgors pass inside his own 22 and ran the length of the pitch to score under the posts, before converting.

In the dying minutes Betws were caught offside in their own 22 which gave Cwmgors a late opportunity to win.

Paul Davies remained calm and converted the kick to hand Cwmgors the victory.