Fixture

Aberavon Quins 34 Ystradgynlais 5

The Quins moved to the top of the Division 2 West by putting the previous incumbents to the sword in decisive fashion.

Ystrad started in confident mood and the Quins defensive capabilities were displayed with flanker Adam Dawe and centre James Peploe-Williams putting in some strong tackles.

The first scrum spelled danger for the visitors as the Quins eight drove forward at a rate of knots. The front row trio of Mike Burgess, Luke Davies and Dan Morgan were in dominant mood in the set pieces with plenty of support from the engine room pairing of Dale Bowen and Callum Beynon and all were great ball carriers.

A strong surge in a scrum saw no.8 Conor O'Callaghan combine with scrum half Jake Flynn to set up a try for Dawe.

Former captain Richard Wanklyn celebrated his return to the Quins colours with an all action display from the wing and Kyle Williams on the opposite flank was a constant thorn in the visitors flesh

A classic rolling maul saw O'Callaghan stretch the Quins lead with a corner try.

The half back pairing of Flynn and Marc Sheppard blossomed behind the dominant eight and Sheppard kicked superbly out of hand into the wind.

Skipper Craig Cox was in fine form and always made ground with his strong running. Niall Price contributed a fine run and from a close line out win by Callum Beynon there was no stopping Luke Davies as he laid out would be tacklers to score a spectacular try.

Ystrad made good use of the wind to set up a line out five metres from the Quins line and No.8 Sean Weed scored from a well worked maul to keep their slender hopes alive.

Early in the second half Ystradgynlais's fate was sealed by being reduced to fourteen men when the ref waved a red card. Full back Ryan Pugh was always keen to set up counter attacks and also made intelligent use of the wind.

Dan Morgan and Cox set up a great attack and O'Callaghan skipped through the defenders to score. Sheppard converted.

Ystrad had no answer to the driving play of the Quins pack but to their credit they defended stubbornly.

O'Callaghan completed his hat trick when the Quins eight marched over from a scrum five and Sheppard again converted. Teams are often rated by the quality of their bench and the Quins bench had both youth and experience as Lloyd Hayden, Liam Oates and Dan Helson joined the pack and Jack Dacey and Alex Condon the three-quarters.

Dacey put in two great runs from his own half, the second of which produced a score for Condon to give the Quins a well deserved bonus point victory. Sponsors' man of the match was Conor O'Callaghan.

(Photo Courtesy of Vance Broad) 

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