GLAMORGAN WANDERERS RFC 11
BEDDAU 6
“Certainly not a classic for the supporters but that sort of a game is one we would have lost earlier in the season. It shows that this young squad has improved massively” commented a happy head coach Chris Ower after the hard fought victory against Beddau.
“Both sides fell foul of the referee and the game was very stop start but Beddau rarely threatened our line, I think we deserved the win.” Added manager Gavin Walker
On a grey afternoon at the Memorial Ground the home side were first on the attack. There was an early exchange of “Handbags”, something that punctuated the game throughout, and both sides fell foul of the referee at the breakdown. When the Wanderers were awarded a penalty on the Beddau 10 yard line Gareth Cull stepped up to open the scoring 3-0. The visitors tried to establish a pattern to their play but resolute defence and a series of handling errors allowed the home side to contain any threat. Another bout of pushing and shoving after the Wanderers had driven deep into the Beddau 22 resulted in both sides losing a player for 10 minutes but the stop start nature of the game continued. The majority of play was with Beddau but there was little to get the supporters of either side excited. The Wanderers had a couple of opportunities deep in the visitor’s territory but a combination of poor execution and poor decision making let the chances slip by. After 26 minutes a long range penalty from Steve Robinson levelled the scores and when the Wanderers were caught offside soon afterwards Robinson’s second penalty put the visitors ahead 3-6. The half continued with very little real action and both sides went into the break looking to regroup. Half time 3-6.
There was an early replacement for the home side in the second half when hooker Ross Grimstone suffered an accidental clash of heads whilst attacking that resulted in him needing to be subbed for Mel Lewis. Sadly the game continued to disappoint and although the majority of the play saw the home side on the attack the supporters were reduced to barracking the referee to provide the entertainment. There was another dramatic fight that involved a large number of players mid way through the half and the referee produced a red card for one of the Beddau wings following a punch that floored Carl Kimber. The back row forward was replaced by Andrew Bradbury and Gareth Cull landed his second penalty to make the scores level at 6-6. Many would have taken that as a fair result on the day but in the dying minutes of the game the home side made the crucial breakthrough. From a kick out of defence Joe Xiberras made a break down the left wing. He crossed into the 22 and found Bradbury in support and the replacement charged in from 20 metres despite the attention of the cover defence 11-6. Within the last minutes of the game Cull had two chances to kill the game off but his shots went wide. Beddau defiantly tried to run from deep but the Wanderers defence held firm and they hung on to record a victory in their final game of the season 11-6.
Some pics at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/12570451@N04/
