Didn't see that one coming

Going into the game, Dunvant had not won since October and Dulais Valley had only lost a couple of games all season and are Champion elect of Division OD,in addition Dunvants defence had been poor of late, and you could trust a teenage boy on the lash to make better decisons on the rugby pitch, because that is how we have been playing. Not today though, today Dunvant showed something that all teams need backbone and self belief.
The game started in familiar fashion when within the first 2 mins an innoccuous kick wasn't dealt with and the opposition pounced to grab an early converted try, that was followed by a penalty to be trailing by 10 in 10 minutes, a familiar position this year, however when a couple of injuries led to Dulais Valleys half backs going off injured the larger opposition suddenly lost their tempo, with the lineouts totally dominated by Dunvant with Matthew Dodd and Aaron Perkins taking solid ball, and spoiling virtually all the oppositions ball afternoon.
Unfortunately Dunvant fell 17 points in arrears when after 20 minutes an obvious knock on was missed and a score close to the posts was converted, from that moment on Dunvant who had been dominating the breakdown as the pace of the game picked up. Dunvants backrow of Lezzi, Perkins and Hewins were now dominating the tackle area and more often than not Doddsy would come in for the jackle, or in any combination of the above, in the loose the front row were also tackling with venom spoliing good ball on every available opportunity.As the half wore on so Dunvant became the team that were going to win, a well taken try far out on the right 5 minutes before the end of the half by Matthew Dodds was excellent reward, however the main element of the game was against us, a strong wind straight down the pitch, and also a slope, but Gareth Banfield stepped up to slot a conversion against all the odds, quite a shock when easier kicks this season have been missed, the question those who know the youth team may ask is why wasn't Sam Hawkes kicking, well Sam had been having a strong game but had gone off half way through the half after receiving a bang on the knee, which meant that Alistair Hewins had been playing in the centre, and Josh Tang had come on to bring a real bit of street cred to the team. At 17-7 Dunvant would have been happy going in at half time, but from the kick off a series of events led to Matthew Dodd clashing heads with Josh Morgan, not for the first time in his career Doddsy injured one of his own team mates, an ensuing loose ball was picked up and when earlier the ref blew immediately when the oppositions player was sparked out Dunvant hesitated, and a penalty ensued, showing how Dulais Valley could see the position of the game they immediately pointed at the posts, to convert a penalty to go into the lead 20-7 at half time. However Josh was unable to go on, which was a pity as he had been having a stormer a right royal pain in the arse, and without any further subs Dunvant played the whole of the second half with 14 men, apart from the last 5 minutes when Jack Thomas was in the sin bin.
The half time talk was simple, kick the corners apply the pressure and the points will come, and apart from the odd mishap they played to script, the slope was a 20 point slope, shortly into the half the dynamic Antonio Luigi Lezzi delivered a horses head to the opposition we were coming sniping through a gap to smash over the line. By now Dunvant were dominating in all areas with Alistair in the Centre with Jack Thomas formimg a formidable defensive and attacking partnership, they shall not pass! And with Rory Beswick, Morgan Hackett and Richard Walters (a 2nd rower) carrying the ball back with interest every time, another try from Matthew Dodd with 15 minutes to go which was converted drew Dunvant back to 20-19. However with Dunvant pressing a deep kick into the oppositions half was gathered by their full back a classy runner he scooted round Morgan to go up the wing and deep into Dunvants 22, and when a scrum resulted their prop who some how had appeared on the pitch having been substituted at half time (we had not agreed to rolling subs) scored the kick at goal was important, it fell short.
That was plenty of time for Dunvant to make them suffer and good use of the wind and a solid defence put pressure on the opposition deep into their 22 with Ben Gould feeding his runners with ease, and when Alistair hit a pop at pace he ploughed over and almost through the posts, Gareth Banfield who had been playing well out of position at 9 converted. Dunvant then did not panic and solid tackling from Cameron Lewis and Gareth Williams as they had done throughout the game helped Dunvant spoil any ball that the opposition had, and the game was summed up when Josh Tang intercepted a sneaky lineout, having earlier perfected a sliding tackle that Ashley Williams would be proud of. Josh given his chance from a ruck hoofed the ball into the crowd and a well deserved win was greatfully accepted, Dunvant need to learn the lessons from this game, they appear to have learned from their previous defeats at last, and with upto 4 games before a cup semi final they now need to keep up the good work , and hope those players who were absent also tune in.