We travelled to play Hendy for the first time in a number of years so they were a bit of an unknown quantity. Conditions were very difficult with a cold, gusting wind and some very heavy hail/rain showers between glimpses of sun. The pitch as expected was a little on the heavy side which hampered a fast running game. The opening encounters were fairly even with both teams stuggling to get any fluidity to their games. On 6 minutes we were pressing hard in Hendy's 22 when the ball was passed out wide and with a little bit of magic by No. 8 Cameron Jones who realised the pass wasn't reaching him, stuck out a boot to kick it on towards our flank. The kick was judged perfectly and winger Alastair Morgan picked up and dived over to open the scoring. The conversion from far out was missed by Louis Davies. Hendy reacted straight away and pushed forward from the restart and were awarded a penalty 10 yds out from our line. They decided to run it and the ball reached their burly No. 8 who was unstoppable from close range. A difficult conversion was also successful and Hendy led 7-5 after 8 minutes. Sadly our No. 10 Louis Davies suffered a nasty knock to his leg and was carried off to play no further part in the game and was replaced by Brandon Jones. On 18 minutes it was a typically strong break by Brandon which led to our second score,when he broke through numerous tackles to almost reach the line but a clever inside pass saw Teigue Williams go under the posts. Brandon converted to make it 7-12. A few minutes later we were pressing again and some neat work between forwards and backs saw No. 8 Cameron crash over for a try which was converted by Brandon. 7-19 to Gowerton. It seemed like all one way traffic at this stage and all Hendy could manage were some releiving kicks from deep in their own half which then gave us plenty of opportunities to counter attack. On the stroke of halftime one of those wayward defensive kicks fell straight into the arms of sub Jack Griffin who from 20 yds out ran the ball back and with a neat sidestep went in under the posts to make an easy conversion for Brandon. The halftime whistle went and we led 7-26.
The second half began in torrential rain which made handling tricky however Hendy were out of the blocks quicker than us and crossed over for a well worked try after just 3 minutes, the conversion was missed 12-26. Sadly the remiander of the second half did not result in any further scoring or any great quality of rugby either. Both defences held firm and any opportunities with ball in hand usually ended up with a handling error. It was evident the conditions were taking it's toll, with cold and wet hands and a heavy pitch it was difficult for either side to put any decent phased play together. All in all a very tough game against a physically strong team and we came out the other end victorious but not a great spectacle for either set of supporters to cheer about.
Processing