Aberaeron 27 Tregaron 7
Admiral National League 3 West A
After a four week period of inactivity, it was a welcome resumption of the league on Saturday and another local derby, with Tregaron.
Despite a period of wet weather, and in conditions not conducive with open rugby, this encounter proved to be a battle of attrition with forward play being very much the order of the day.
Aberaeron chose to play with the benefit of the wind in the first period and this proved decisive at the final reckoning.
Rhodri Jenkins opened the hosts’ account with a penalty and this was soon followed with a sniping close range effort by scrum half Steffan Jones, converted by Jenkins.
At this stage Aberaeron were in domination and Jenkins soon added to the scoreline with a scything individual effort.
Minutes from the break, centre Dyfrig Dafis extended the lead with a weaving effort from distance with Jenkins’ conversion opening up a 22 point advantage at half time.
The home support would have expected a continuation of control after the break, but the expected onslaught was optimistic to say the least and the half was dominated by the visitors with periods of pressure located deep in home territory.
Aberaeron found the onslaught difficult to repel and they were eventually forced to concede a penalty try with the referee losing patience with constant indiscretions.
The restart proved to be a little relief from the pressure and with the all important bonus point at stake a late rally proved significant and a rare backline movement resulted in a opportunity to pressure the visitors‘ defence and a Bobby Jones effort released the relief with a close range effort, thereby securing the bonus point.
Whilst Aberaeron will be relieved with the bonus point win, Tregaron will be encouraged with their performance with the final scoreline not a true reflection of their second half dominance.
• Second placed Lampeter produced another scintillating display to run out convincing 87-0 winners at Llangwm ahead of their big WRU Division 3 Cup clash against Pontyclun on Saturday.
Iestyn Evans and Jac Williams scored four tries apiece with Ceri Thomas, Ryan Kelachandra, Osian Jones and Tomos Rhys Jones also crossing the line.