Dunvant 2nds lose in the cup away to Bonymaen

This was Dunvant’s second visit to Bonymaen this year with the first ending in a 46-0 loss in awful conditions before Christmas. This time the weather was unusually warm and sunny in Parc Mawr. This was the Quarter final of the cup and Dunvant although missing many regular players were determined to get through to the Semi Final.

Dunvant started well although soon the home side started to dominate possession with a passage of play that seem to last for at least 5 minutes. This stretched the Dunvant defense and the lungs of the players but Dunvant managed to hold strong. However, with about 15 minutes on the clock Bony secured a line-out 5 yards out and Dunvant made the fatal mistake of letting them set a driving maul. With the difference in the pack weights most likely being at least double in the favor of Bonymaen, as soon as this maul was in motion there was no stopping it and Bony went over for a converted try. However, Dunvant learned from this mistake and great work from Darren Goddard and Jonny Jones throughout the game disrupted and stopped Bony setting up successful drives like this.

The home side continued to pile on the pressure and soon forced some missed tackles in the Dunvant defense with a score in the far touchline, which was unconverted. This put Bony 12-0 up with 25 minutes gone.

Dunvant managed to hold on to the ball and enjoy some possession and made the home side defend. A clearing kick was taken from Sam Gallagher who linked with Steve McMorran. Steve made ground before releasing Ed Berry who showed great pace and strength to score in the near corner. The touchline conversion was miss but Dunvant were back in contention at 12-5

The second half saw Matt Pearce come on for Darren Godard and Dunvant could also enjoy the advantage of the slightly sloping field. The first points however went to the home side with a penalty goal taking the score to 15-5.

Dunvant were getting more and more of the ball although were not able to build pressure due to a poor success rate in their line-out, which hampered them through the game. The fact that 7 replacements came on the field for Bony also didn’t help Dunvant’s efforts. Some missed chances made Dunvant start to chase the game in the final 10 minutes with a mid-field mistake allowing Bony to hack through and score their 3rd try which was again converted.

It epitomised Dunvant’s performance that they came back strong at Bony and managed to score their second try in the final 5 minutes. This came again from Ed Berry who made his own space by beating at least 5 men to run in for a great try and to end the game at 22-10 to Bonymaen.

The team showed great character and although there may have been aspects of the game we can improve on the effort was outstanding. Hopefully we can enjoy some successes before the end of the season and continue to improve as the season comes to an end.