WHITLAND 7 pts. ABERAVON 23

Whitland's season of mixed fortunes continued at Parc Llwyn Ty Gwyn on Saturday when they suffered defeat at the hands of Aberavon.

But there was no disgrace in that, for the weakened Borderers, suffering from a catalogue of injuries, put up a brave, battling display against the likely title contenders.

Aberavon are currently lying in third place, six points adrift of division one leaders Pontypool, but with the advantage of a couple of games in hand.

Whitland, meanwhile, are in mid-table on 24 points, nine behind their opponents last weekend, having won eight and lost seven of their 15 games.

On Saturday, they always looked likely to struggle, and it was not long before the visitors had got their noses in front - in fact it was just two minutes, when fly-half James Davies banged over a penalty goal.

At the other end, his opposite number Daniel Griffiths was off target for Whitland, and 10 minutes later the Wizards showed a little piece of magic as they opened up a 10-point advantage with the first touchdown of the afternoon.

The try was instigated by the powerful Aberavon pack who showed their dominance in the linesout with an impressive catch and drive, which set up good ball for the backs.

Scrum-half Dan Hawkins made full use of it, working the blind-side, where James Davies was at his shoulder, before releasing winger Lee Abdul for a fine try in the corner.

The try went unconverted, but with their tails up, Aberavon continued to pile on the pressure. The Whitland defence worked manfully in a bid to repel them, but they were breached again 10 minutes later when the speedy Abdul bagged his second unconverted try following another blind-side moving involving half-back pair Hawkins and Davies.

It left Whitland facing an uphill struggle, and their situation did not get any better when Davies slotted over another penalty to make the interval score 16-0 to visitors.

Only gloomy note for Aberavon - apart from the weather that is - was the sin-binning of hooker Jason Hiett for what appeared to be a punch on Whitland lock David Ebsworth.

The Borderers failed to take advantage of their superior numbers in this 10-minute spell, however, and it was a similar story in the second half when winger Abdul was also yellow-carded after tangling with Steve Griffiths.

The Whitland winger gained some revenge soon after, though, when he crossed for his side's only try of the day, following good work by both forwards and backs alike.

The pack were at the heart of it as hooker Jason Evans stole one against the head at a scrum on the Aberavon 22. Quick to take advantage of this, the ball was fed out to the backs, where Daniel Griffiths cut through. Back row man Tristan Bowen was alongside him and after receiving possession he slipped a pass to winger Griffiths who darted in between the sticks.

Fly-half Daniel Griffiths, the try-scorer's brother, had no problem in adding the extras to give Whitland a sniff of getting something out of the game.

But that sniff was finally snuffed out late on when Hawkins and Davies again combined in yet another blind-side move for Davies to bag his side's third and final try.

The outside-half also landed a superb conversion from the touchline to drive the final nail into the Borderers' coffin.

Second row David Ebsworth was later nominated as Whitland's man of the match, particularly for his improved lineout work in the second half.

Whitland Wanderers and the Youth team were without fixtures last weekend.

Tomorrow (Saturday) Whitland are away to Tondu and the supporters bus will leave the clubhouse at 12.30 pm.