THE GULF between the upper end of the Principality Premiership and the lower reaches of the Championship is huge, and Newcastle Emlyn deserved huge credit in the 61-7 defeat to mighty Ebbw Vale.

It was Red and Whites who applied all the early pressure as they drove down to the visitors’ twenty two metre line, where they were awarded a penalty as Ebbw desperately killed the ball at a ruck. Winger Dan Davies, however, pushed his attempt just wide of the posts.

Ebbw Vale’s response was powerful and determined, and setting up camp in the Emlyn twenty two they placed the home side’s scrum under real pressure.

Number eight Ethan Doyle controlled the ball and the drive and he was awarded a pushover try, converted by outside half Ian Smerdon, who had an almost faultless day with the boot, converting seven out of his eight attempts at goal.

Using the boot of Smerdon and the power of the pack, with captain Ashley Sweet controlling the line outs, the visitors were quickly back in the Emlyn half, and centre David Adam Jones crossed for Vale’s second try, converted by Smerdon.

Undeterred, Emlyn fought back really well, with open-side flanker Owain Powell excelling at the tackle area, and turning the ball over on at least five occasions.

Powell and number eight Gareth Patterson had excellent matches, ably assisted on occasions by flanker Joel James.

Emlyn prop Gethin Davies was brought down five metres short, but Emlyn were unable to breach the Steelmen’s line, and they conceded a penalty for an offence at the ruck by flanker James, who was unfortunately yellow-carded for his efforts.

Urged on by the large crowd, Emlyn continued to pressurise and the visitors had prop Robert Sevenoaks carded for handling the ball at a ruck on their line.

Emlyn captain Alex Williams was also held up short of the line, but the visitors extended their lead when scrum half David Lewis Jones tapped from a penalty and crossed for an unconverted try.

Just before half time, a well-controlled catch and drive from a line out saw flanker Luke Crockett being accredited with another score, converted by Smerdon.

The second half began with Ebbw Vale bringing on club captain Damien Hudd in the second row, to bring even greater control to their game, and they scored through tries by prop Sevenoaks, from a driving line out, and full back Daniel Haymond, who sneaked in at the back of a driving maul. Smerdon converted both tries to take their lead up to 40 points.

Emlyn brought on fresh legs and they finally got on the scoreboard with probably the best try of the game as winger Dan Davies passed back inside to Shaun Leonard, and two passes later the supporting scrum half Mike Jones put his head back and sprinted to score a try under the posts, for Dan Davies to convert.

Emlyn outside centre Teifion Davies came into his own with a couple of lovely outside breaks from inside his own half, which unfortunately came to nothing.

Ebbw, however, added further converted tries through Crockett and replacement centre Jordan Howells, and then with the last play winger David Williams crossed under the posts for a try, converted by replacement David Langdon.