ABERYSTWYTH’s away trip to face mid-table Dunvant, near Swansea, resulted in a narrow 12-9 defeat for the visitors in their Division One West match last weekend.

The weather was clear, but recent rain made it heavy underfoot for both sides.

The Dunvant kick off fell short, with the resultant scrum leading to a promising incursion into the home team’s territory.

A spilled ball led to the play moving into the Aberystwyth half, but staunch defending held off the home side’s attack.

Aberystwyth were then penalised for a deliberate tap on, which ultimately resulted in Mat Hughes being sin-binned.

The next 10 minutes of play saw possession pass from one team to the other through a number of penalised mistakes.

The referee awarded a penalty to Dunvant for a holding-on offence, which led to a line-out near the Aberystwyth line.

From this, Dunvant’s No 6, Ben Davies crossed the line - and the try was awarded despite many of the spectators believing that the ball was not grounded. The conversion by Williams-Parry was successful.

The rest of the first half saw play moving between the two halves, with a number of infringements, spilled balls and clearance kicks failing to create advantage for either team, except for one Aberystwyth penalty for Steffan Rees, reducing the deficit to 7-3.

A further penalty against the Dunvant hooker for a deliberate knock on saw him yellow-carded. During his absence, an exciting break downfield by Aber’s Ian Ellis and Mat Hughes led to a fumbled pass, and thus the advantage was lost.

The second half followed a similar pattern, but Aberystwyth were able to take advantage of two Dunvant infringements in the first 15 minutes, both kicked by Rees to bring the score to 7-9 to the visitors.

Much of the second half saw Dunvant playing in the Aber half, and around the 25 minute mark a forwards push from a line-out saw the Dunvant forwards force their way over for a try by No 4 Ollie Beck,which was not converted, 12-9.

Sometime later, a second yellow card saw the hooker sent off for the rest of the game. A further yellow card then saw Dunvant reduced to 13 men - much to the derision of the home crowd - with the prospect of a difficult end of match.

A scrum for Aberystwyth sent the ball backwards and a decision to take the narrow corridor bundled the attack into touch. The line-out enabled Dunvant to tie up the ball up until the final whistle.

Despite some good individual performances, it was felt that, as a team, the Aber performance lacked the sharpness and precision seen in the defeat of Kidwelly.

Dunvant had secured over 50 per cent of the territory and possession, and their speed to the ball and clinical handling made them marginally better opponents, and probably deserving in their victory.

Meanwhile the under-performance of Aberystwyth was felt by their players and the frustration of captain Arwel Lloyd was evident in their post-match briefing.

Hopefully, Aber can start consolidating their table position with their home match against Gorseinon on Saturday.