PEMBROKE DOCK QUINS nil

BYNEA 31 pts.

The Quins' poor run of form continued at Bierspool on Saturday with their seventh defeat in eight matches, against a Bynea side who themselves have improved considerably from last season.

It only took the visitors five minutes to open the scoring when centre Owen Thomas squeezed in at the corner despite a fine effort from Quins centre Liam Smith to keep him out.

Outside-half Robert Charles added the extras to put the visitors 7-0 into the lead.

Things looked ominous for the Quins in these early stages as the visitors were on top in every facet of play and it was no surprise when converted centre Alex Kwam, playing at number eight, chipped through and gathered the generous bounce to score halfway out.

Charles once again added the extras to push the score out to 14-0, and when Thomas grabbed his second try, which went unconverted, after outpacing the home defence, it looked all over for the Quins.

The Quins were then dealt another blow when they lost outside-half Lewis Davies to an ankle injury, which forced a reshuffle, with Adam Cawley moving to outside-half and Dai Rees slotting in at scrum-half.

Simon Coleman filled in at centre and Paul Jonkers resumed at his usual position at fullback.

The hosts did not concede any more points before the break and went in 19 points adrift.

The Quins in the second half seemed to make a far better fist of it, but whether that was due to the reshuffle was up for debate.

Coleman was giving the Bynea defence plenty to think about with some determined running, but all too often the Quins were getting turned over in promising positions and the chances were lost.

For the opening 25 minutes of the second half, the Quins kept the visitors at bay, and the question was could they deny the visitors a bonus point?

Sadly for the Quins it was not to be, when outstanding number eight Kwam galloped away for Bynea's fourth try and his second which was converted by Rob Charles, to put the visitors 20 in front and out of sight.

The Quins then went on the attack and after forcing numerous penalties Cawley pushed his side onto Bynea's five-yard line and from the resulting lineout the home side went desperately close to crossing the whitewash as prop Ian Osbourne surged towards the line on two occasions, but unfortunately it was not to be.

The visitors always looked more dangerous on the attack and when a Quins kick was charged down in midfield, there was number eight Kwam to snap up the ball and score under the posts for his hat-trick try.

Surprisingly, Charles took the conversion kick way beyond the 25 and screwed it wide.

For the Quins, with four fixtures remaining and two of them against promotion hopefuls Swansea Uplands and New Dock Stars, things are not going to get any easier.