GOWERTON’s 34-17 home win did not fully reflect the effort that Aberystwyth had put into the game, especially in the first half of their Division One West match.

The game started well for Aber, with a lot of determined running and good ball retention, but then a silly error of kicking the ball dead wasted all the hard work.

This was to prove a feature of the game for the visiting side, when a lot of good play was thrown away by carelessness.

On 8 minutes, Aber took the lead after some strong carrying from the forwards, as a delightful chip from scrum half Gruff Jones was gathered on the bounce by centre Steff Rees, who crossed near the posts. Fly half Steffan Rees added a conversion.

Gowerton replied when Aber gave away a penalty on the half way line and their forwards drove well from the resulting line-out, allowing scrum half James to twist over, and centre Hammer converted.

Gowerton went down to 14 men when their flanker was yellow-carded for a high tackle by referee Rhys Jones, of Pencoed.

Play settled down between the 22s until a 60 metre kick from Llyr Thomas led to some Aber pressure, and Gowerton were penalised for plating the ball in the ruck, with Steffan Rees kicking the penalty.

Again another loose kick by Aberystwyth lead to another scrum on their 10 metre line, which Gowerton scrum half James capitalised on with a good grubber, leading to centre Hammer going over, before then also converting his own try.

Varied kicking by the Gowerton half backs used the slope and size of the pitch effectively, especially in the second half.

Aber came back strongly and after good pressure a loose Gowerton pass hit the post and centre Steff Rees following up touched down. Steffan Rees converted.

Aber continued to pressure the Gowerton line, but gave away another careless penalty. With Aber expecting a kick to touch, Gowerton bravely ran the ball from deep inside their own 22, and after good support play centre Osbourne scored.

With Hammer missing the conversion, it was 19-17 to Gowerton at half time, despite Aberystwyth playing the best rugby.

Determined defence by Gowerton and some silly errors from the visitors had led to Aberystwyth giving away points.

Prop James Plumbridge was replaced by Carwyn Thomas at half time because of injury, and the scrum did not have time to settle down, when Gowerton used it to their advantage to push Aber back from a five metre scrum, and Bradley scored, with Hammer added the extra points.

Aber continued to work very hard and were probably guilty of trying too hard, which is why silly mistakes were made.

Gowerton were defending much like Aber did at the start of the season, not committing to the breakdown and making themselves very hard to break down.

Aber were penalised for appealing a forward pass, which the referee did give but then changed strangely to a penalty against. Hammer converted the penalty.

After 58 minutes, prop Billy Thomas also had to be replaced, by Jordan Thomas, which now meant uncontested scrums.

A brave tackle by Tom Slinger saved a certain try in the corner, but a breakdown in communication led to second row sub Fisher crossing over from the line-out.

Jordan was yellow-carded from the kick off when he took out a player in the air.

As the game became quite scrappy, both sides made errors and Gowerton’s left wing was yellow-carded for a late tackle.

Overall, Aberystwyth had tried hard, but the result was spoilt by trying often for the miracle pass and trying for too much when gaps weren’t coming, especially when they were chasing the game.