WHITLAND 19 PONTYPOOL 13
A win at last! Whitland finally got their season into gear last Friday night with a superb win over Pontypool, their first victory after eight straight defeats.
The Borderers have been finding life in the upper echelons that is division one of the National League rather tough this season, and their clash with the once mighty Pontypool was no different.
But spurred on by the vociferous home support at Parc Llwyn Ty Gwyn, the Green and Whites showed great determination and spirit in this game to finally break their duck.
This was never more typified than when skipper Phil Morgan was sent off early in the second half and the Borderers were further reduced to 13 men when prop Romeo Collela was sin-binned in the closing stages.
But the remaining troops rallied round to show tremendous courage in the face of adversity, defending their lines with dogged resistance to hang on for a deserved victory.
Earlier, the Borderers had got off to a solid start and took the lead soon after the kick-off when outside-half Daniel Griffiths landed the first of four penalties after centre Domenico Setaro had been impeded during a run to the line.
Griffiths widened the gap to six points when he banged over a second after 10 minutes, only for his opposite number Richard Jenkins to reply a few minutes later with his first successful kick of the match.
Whitland continued to press forward and when impressive flanker Rob Norton went on a charge from a scrum, Pooler were forced to concede another penalty and Griffiths duly obliged by landing the goal.
The Borderers suffered a setback when skipper Morgan was yellow-carded, only for Pontypool lock Mike Powell to suffer a similar fete soon after.
The visitors again reduced the deficit with a second Jenkins penalty, but it was Whitland who finished the half the stronger, opening up a healthy 10-point advantage following a fine opportunist try.
When Pooler were penalised, ever-alert scrum-half Rob Phillips seized the chance to take a quick one. Feeding fullback Wayne Lewis, he found prop Colella and flanker Norton in support, before Phillips was again on hand to take the final pass and dive over for the try.
Fly-half Griffiths added the extras with a successful conversion to take the score to a healthy 16-6 at the interval.
It was just as well that they held such an advantage at the break, for as it turned out, the second half saw the Borderers very much on the defensive.
Their cause was not helped when skipper Morgan received his marching orders after just nine minutes of the half, but all credit to the home defence, they were superb, repelling wave after wave of Pooler attacks.
And when they did manage to break out of their own half, Whitland even found time to add to their score when Griffiths banged over his fourth penalty with 10 minutes to go.
But still the drama was far from over. Prop Romeo Colella was sin-binned soon after, and with the Borderers now two players short, it was all hands to the pump for the remaining nail-biting minutes.
The home defence finally cracked when former Welsh international Byron Heyward, on as a second half substitute, set up a chance for fullback Griffin to cross for a try.
Heywood converted it himself to give Pooler some hope in the closing moments, but although they went close on a couple of occasions, Whitland held firm to record a memorable win - much to the relief of the players, supporters and everyone connected with the club.
Team: Wayne Lewis, Craig Richards (Ricky Davies), Domenico Setaro, Sengili Tuhalamaka, Steve Hartland, Daniel Griffiths, Rob Phillips, Gareth Williams, Steve Gerrard, Romeo Colella, David Ebsworth, Fakataha Molitika, Rob Norton, Phil Morgan, Randall Williams. replacements not used - Andy Webseter, Chris Williams, Ian Haycocks, Simon Rogers, Gavin Morris, Andrew Jenkins.