Dunvant seconds lose away to Pontarddulais

Dunvant 2nds travelled the short distance to Pontarddulais on Saturday, not far from the 1st’s game at Hendy and on the pitch that the Youth had played the previous evening.

With player numbers low due to many boys not available and last minute drop outs our back line had many out of position. It was this that left our defence still trying to organise itself in the first 20 mins and saw Pontarddulais capitalise on this to run in 2 trys, the second of which was converted. However some good possession moved us in the Pontarddulais half and we were awarded with 2 kickable penalty attempts, which Jac Newbury converted comfortably. Pontarddulais hit back with a penalty of their own before half time and the score was 15-6 to the home side.

The second half saw better rugby from Dunvant who were now starting to shake off their rustiness after the summer break, but it was Pontarddulais that scored first, again finding space out wide to run in an unconverted try. Dunvant bounce back immediately and pressured the home side into giving away another kickable penalty that Jac slotted over to bring us with 9 points. After further periods of sustained pressure and good ball retention from Dunvant we opted to run a Penalty under the posts and the ball was given to Ceri Davies 10m from the line, with a short burst of speed and power Ceri knocked 3 or 4 defenders to one side to score under the posts. With Jac again slotting over the easy conversion kick Dunvant were within 4 point and looked the stronger side. Again Pontarddulais buckled under the some good pressure from Dunvant and Jac was awarded yet another attempt at goal and he continued with his 100% kick rate for the afternoon. This saw Dunvant within a point with their tails up. However Pontarddulais were award a penalty straight after the kick off for a Dunvant player deemed to be playing the ball on the floor and being off his feet, which was a very close call and gave the home side an easy 3 points to widen the gap again. However it was Dunvant that still looked the dominate side but with 10 mins to go Pontarddulais intercepted a pass on their 22 and using some fresh legs from the bench to run the length of the field to score a try that completed the scoring for the afternoon.

Although a disappointing result Dunvant will take heart from the performance which at times was very encouraging. Also with other players being available to strengthen the squad in coming weeks we look forward to growing into the season with away trips to Tondu and Waunarlwydd on the horizon.