Whitland travelled well and came away from Merthyr with three vital points to ease further away from the bottom of National League division one.

It was a hard battle and some of the Whitland players had the scars to prove it, with Mike Buckingham having stitches to his face and scrum-half Robert Phillips having 10 stitches to his ear after winger Jordon Rees was red-carded for illegal use of the boot.

For any impartial watcher of rugby, what a game, but for Whitland and Merthyr supporters alike, it was a nerve-racking fixture, with both sides desperate for the three points.

Merthyr opened the scoring in the 12th minute when, after a clearance kick by Daniel Griffiths, their winger Jordan Rees gathered the ball on his own 22 metre line, went round opposite number Butcher and with the Whitland defence slow to get across, raced the length of the field to score in the corner.

Outside-half Alex Lawson failed with the conversion attempt from wide out.

Whitland reduced the arrears when fly-half Daniel Griffiths kicked a penalty in the 14th minute after Merthyr flanker Chris Hala 'Ufia was penalised for a high tackle.

In the 23rd minute, Merthyr scored their second try, catching Whitland napping with a quickly taken which saw winger Chris Perry crossing for the touchdown. This time Lawson added the extra two points with a successful conversion.

Three minutes later, Hala'Ufia was yellow-carded for handling on the ground, and Whitland swiftly took full advantage of their numerical advantage to bag two tries.

The first was scored by number eight Randall Williams after good work by Steve Hartland, with Griffiths converting.

Then came the try of the game by centre Mike Buckingham, the ball travelling from side to side before the powerful centre crossed for the touchdown with several players in support.

Griffiths failed with the conversion to leave the half-time score 15-12 to Whitland.

The second half started with a try by Daniel Griffiths after only two minutes. After being awarded a penalty, Griffiths took a quick tap and passed out to fullback Wayne Lewis, who raced for the corner, before passing back inside to Griffiths, who crashed over.

He also converted for Whitland to strengthen their lead to a useful 22-12.

Merthyr replied in the 17th minute when number 10 Alex Lawson raced over under the posts from a mistake and added the two points to cut the deficit to just three at 22-19.

The last quarter saw both sides running the ball, but there were no further scores.

Robert Phillips came on for the last 10 minutes and late on Merthyr's Jordan Rees was red-carded for stamping on him.

Whitland fielded: Wayne Lewis, Steve Butcher (Gavin Morris), Domenico Setaro, Mike Buckingham, Steve Hartland, Daniel Griffiths, Andrew Jenkins (Robert Phillips), Gareth Williams, Steve Gerrard, Ricky Davies (Romeo Colella), Anthony Jakeman, Fakatah Molatika, Rob Norton, (Mark Hughes) Phil Morgan (capt.), Randall Williams.

Substitutes not used: Dai Ebsworth, Simon Rogers and Andy Webster.

WHITLAND WANDERERS

Whitland Wanderers travelled to Penlan on Saturday and lost narrowly 17-13.

Kevin Hodgson opened the scoring for Penlan, with Kristian Richards cutting the lead to 5-3 at half-time.

One of Penlan's second rows was red-carded for punching, and the second half saw Whitland scrum-half Andrew Pickersgill go over in the 10th minute for an unconverted try.

Penlan came back when winger John Pullin scored, only for Pickersgill to give Whitland the lead with his second try to make it 13-10.

Unfortunately, the match slipped away when Penlan's number eight, Nicky Clarke, crashed over in the 38th minute and Alan Davies added the conversion to leave the final score 17-13 to Penlan.

GRIFFITHS CUP

Whitland Under 18s travelled to play Aberystwyth in the first round of the Griffiths Cup and, after a good performance from a team including five of their Under 16s, came away victorious by 31-22.

Whitland scored two tries in the first half by Ross Michael and Mathew Howells, with Aber replying with three and one conversion to lead 17-10 at the break.

Three further Whitland tries in the second half by Ally Bowen, Huw Devonald and Ryan Michael, all converted by Wayne Morris, with Aber adding another, produced the final score of 31-22 to the young Borderers.