ABERYSTWYTH were narrowly beaten 17-13 at home to Llanelli Wanderers on a bright, sunny afternoon at Plascrug, but both teams deserved credit for serving up a hard-fought Division One West encounter, with the result in doubt right up to the final whistle.

Llanelli Wanderers started the game full of intent and forced the Aber front row to stand up in the first scrum, and No 10 Jonny George kicked the penalty award to open the scoring.

Aberystwyth had to defend manfully during this opening period, with their first-up tackling being far more effective than in the previous game.

Llanelli Wanderers extended their lead, however, when after a series of disciplined drives the ball was passed through the backs to right winger Jonny Jenkins to score their first try.

This was converted by Jonny George to give the visitors a 10 point lead.

Aber’s line-out was not fully-functioning and, combined with some lax refereeing of the scrums, they were unable to secure any meaningful possession to get back into the game.

Against the run of play, however, Aber managed to score next when, during another Llanelli Wanderers attack, a speculative inside pass was picked up by centre Carwyn Evans, who sprinted over from his own 10m line to score a fine unconverted try.

During a rare Aber attack, Adam Carvell had a lovely mazy run down the left wing, but the hosts could not maintain any continuity of possession and were penalised at the ruck.

Just before half time the Wanderers’ No 8 was penalised for a high tackle and No 10 Llyr Thomas kicked the goal to make the half time score 8-10.

The well-organised visitors dictated the pace and tempo of the game during the first half, but Aberystwyth’s committed defensive efforts kept them in the game, with the neutral supporters saying that the visitors had deserved more than a two-point lead going into the second half.

After the interval, Aberystwyth began to win more possession and created some attacking opportunities, and following a ruck their open-side was penalised and yellow-carded for not rolling away from the tackle area.

The ensuing penalty was kicked deep into the visitors’ 22m area by Mathew Hughes, but unfortunately the catch and drive from the line-out was repelled by Llanelli. Both sides then missed a kickable penalty each.

Aber were by now exerting the pressure, and they eventually scored a fine try to take the lead at 13-10.

Quick thinking saw scrum-half Gruff Jones take a tap penalty and he fed Adam Carvell, who with a classic in-out swerve beat the last defender for a well-worked try in the corner.

Llanelli Wanderers reacted very positively to this set-back and eventually, after a series of drives by their forwards which stretched the Aber defence, the ball was released for the backs to free centre Rhydian Morgan to score. The try was also converted by Jonny George to make it 13-17.

Aberystwyth then spent the remainder of the game putting real pressure in the Wanderers’ 22, but they could not score the try that was needed.

The referee did not allow any injury time at all and brought to an end a very competitive, hard fought game, which was a credit to both teams.

Aberystwyth centre Mathew Hughes won the Man of the Match award for some elusive strong runs and his line kicking, which set up some very promising attacking positions.