Waunarlwydd 26 pts. Whitland 30

Whitland enjoyed their first victory of the season in Swalec League Division One West with an away win at high-flying Waunarlwydd by 30 points to 26, gaining a bonus point as well by scoring five tries.

Whitland started strongly and took the lead after three minutes when flanker Jack Mason drove over for their first try of the afternoon after great work by the pack, Outside-half Rhys Jones failied with the conversion.

This lead was increased five mintues later when Rhys Jones slotted a penalty, only for his counterpart Jonny Davies to bag Waun's first points with a penalty some two mintues later.

Midway through the half, Whitland lost their skipper Ryan Michael with an injury, being replaced by Dylan Richards in the back row.

After 27 minutes, Rhys Jones again missed a penalty, but Whitland increased thier lead when hooker Trystan Griffiths charged down a clearance kick to score the second try of the afternoon, Jones adding the conversion.

Waunarlwydd's Jonny Davies slotted his second penalty just before the break and with Rhys Jones missing one for Whitland, it left the score 15 points to six in favour of the Borderers.

Waunarlwydd, through Jonny Davies, cut the lead early in the second half with another penalty, but Whitland hit back when acting skipper, prop Gareth Lloyd, drove over from close range for his side's third try of the afternoon after 10 minutes; again Jones failed with the conversion. Some five minutes later, Whitland got their bonus point try after a half break by centre Carwyn Jones, who put in a great chip for fullback Johnny Morgan to gather and get the touch down. Scrum-half Huw Rees took over the kicking duties, but fared no better, missing the conversion to leave Whitland with a 25 points to nine lead and game over, or so the visiting supporters thought.

Prop Gareth Lloyd was then yellow carded for coming in at the side and during this time Waunarlwydd took full advantage, scoring two tries through centre Daniel Fox, with Jonny Davies converting both to cut the deficit to 25-23.

And when he kicked a penalty with seven minutes remaining on the clock, to give the home side the lead by 26 points to 25, Whitland supporters could have been forgiven for fearing the worst, but back came the Borderers to score their fifth try of the afternoon, and what a cracker it was. Winger Will Davies gathered the ball on the halfway line and made a half break, with great support from Jack Mason and Mike Giorgiou, who gave the ball to Jonny Morgan and the fullback flew in at the corner to score and regain the lead. Huw Rees again failed with the conversion.

This set up a very tense last few minutes and when Gareth Lloyd got his marching orders for a second yellow card, Waunarlwydd threw everything  at Whitland, but their defence held firm and victory was theirs.

It was well deserved and could have been a lot easier if the kickers had found their touch, but take nothing away from them, it was a great team performance by the whole squad.

Team fielded: Jonny Morgan, Will Davies, Carwyn Jones (Gary Evans), Mike Giorgiou, Dion Thomas, Rhys Jones, Huw Rees, Gareth Lloyd, Trystan Griffiths, Andrew Jones (Aled Richards), Raff Williams, Aidan Laxton, Jack Mason, Ryan Michael, capt (Dylan Richards), Luke Kendall.

Subs not used - Marc Jones and Carl Smith.

 

Whitland 2nd XV 17 pts. Waunarlwydd 2nd XV 12

Whitland won their second game of the season in the Carmarthen Tyre Services League by beating Waunarlwydd by 17 points to 12 at home.

At the interval, the scores were locked at seven points each, Whitland's try coming from fullback Ross Michael, who also added the conversion, while for the visitors, scrum-half Charlie Beck got the touch down and also added the two points.

In the second half, a Ross Michael penalty gave Whitland the lead before fullback Dafydd Pritchard put the visitors into the lead with an unconverted try.

It was left to Whitland's scrum-half Dafydd Evans to get their second try and Ross Michael to seal victory with the conversion, taking his tally for the afternoon to 12 points.

 

Whitland Youth 30 pts. Aberystwyth 12

Whitland Youth beat visiting Aberystwyth Youth by 30 points to 12, scoring three converted tries.

Centre Lewis Thomas crossed for two and captain and flanker Andrew Hawkins got the other, with outside-half Nico Setaro converting all three and kicking three penalties in the process.