ABERYSTWYTH RFC begin the second half of their season in Swalec Division One West in good spirits as they bid to consolidate a top three position.

Having exceeded expectations in the first half of their season, with seven wins from 11 league outings, coaches Craig Turner and Ifan Thomas are now looking to continue the campaign positively.

A string of strong performances have made other clubs at this level sit up and realise that Aberystwyth were not just promoted to make up the numbers.

And despite the narrow defeat at Penclawdd a fortnight ago, the Plascrug men are flying high as they look to bounce back at home to Gorseinon on Saturday.

“We wanted to make sure that we were safe at this level, but this talented young squad has exceeded expectations, and we now want to stay up there at the top end of the table,” said chairman Tim Lewis.

“There are tough games to come, but we are very proud of what the coaches and players have achieved so far, especially with 85 per cent of the players coming up through the youths and junior section.

“Everyone is delighted with how things have been going, and we are far higher at this stage than what we had envisaged, but we now want to try and remain in the top quarter of the league table.”

Few players would reflect the local pride in his Aber shirt more than captain Lee ‘Truck’ Evans, who has stepped up to the task of leading the first team in its debut year in Division One West - the highest level the club has played.

Aberystwyth born and bred, the 24 year-old No 8 has followed in the footsteps of his father, Raymond Evans, as a back row player and captain, and in common with most of the current squad he learned his rugby by rising through the system of junior and youth teams at Aberystwyth RFC, which he joined at the age of 10.

Club coaches Turner and Thomas, however, will be keen to stress that there are still lessons to be learned from their 17-13 defeat at Penclawdd last time out.It was only some tenacious tackling that restricted the home side’s scoring, and although Aber came close to winning in the dying minutes of the game, the home win was a fair reflection of the game.

Guilty of some poor kicking in attack and squandering overlaps, Aber had more difficulty in their ball handling than the hosts, and as a result the error count was higher than it should have been.

Also, after several matches where their scrummaging had been the strongest feature of their game, the inability of the Aber pack to hold the opposition’s drive meant that they were in trouble on their own put-in, as well as the opposition’s.

Behind the scrum Aberystwyth’s defence was generally as sound as ever, however, and in the loose play the back row of Bryn Shepherd, Paul Stubbs and Lee Evans worked tirelessly, and Robbie Parry also really stood out for Aber.

Aber will be looking to build on the positives this weekend, and it could be fine margins again if their 31-29 defeat at Gorseinon last September is anything to go by.

Gorseinon have been in Division One West for three seasons already and after finishing last season in mid-table, they just about managed to edge the reverse fixture in the second game of the season.

The ‘Gors’ are now one place and three points behind Aber in the table, and the Plascrug men have a game on hand - so Saturday’s clash will be crucial for both sides.