ABERYSTWYTH deserved their Division One West victory over Dunvant, but they had to work hard for their 22-5 win by their dogged and determined opponents.

The wet conditions were not conducive to playing a fast open game, but to their credit Aber managed to score two lovely tries, which were the highlights of a rather dour and hard-fought encounter.

Aber had started the game strongly, with some powerful drives by the pack, and eventually they drove Dunvant back into their 22. They conceded a five metre scrum, which Aber, with an air of inevitability, drove them backwards over their line, for captain Lee Evans to touch down. Llyr Thomas easily converted.

Aber’s scrummage was totally dominant throughout, and eventually Dunvant opted for non-contestable scrums.

Dunvant came back strongly through influential outside-half Richard Lewis, who spotted that the Aber defence was narrow, and put in a lovely cross-kick which wing Adam Williams-Parry gathered comfortably and scampered over to score an unconverted try wide out.

There was then a long period of stalemate, with both defences being dominant. Aberystwyth were guilty some handling errors, but because their scrum was dominant, these went unpunished.

The next Aber try was very well worked, with Steff Rees initially finding a very good penalty touch just inside the Dunvant 22. Aber won the line-out cleanly and the ball was moved quickly infield, where Gwern Penri came off his wing into the line and, with some lovely foot-work, scored a fine try by the posts.

Llyr Thomas converted comfortably to stretch the lead to 14-5, and the feeling at half-time was that Aberystwyth should have been further ahead, given their territorial and scrummage dominance.

Aber’s third try was a fine individual effort by full-back Mathew Hughes, when some accurate handling by the back-line gave him the room to burst down the left wing and he chipped the ball through the defensive line and won the race to score.

Aber were now dictating the play and Llyr Thomas kicked a penalty for 22-5.

There was some discussion among the home supporters at this decision, with many advocating that, given their dominance up front, Aber hould have opted for a scrum and gone for a bonus fourth try. This was not to be as Dunvant finished strongly and put Aber under some pressure, but failed to add to their score.