Wanderers succumb to Resilient Beddau
Match Report
Beddau 19
Wanderers 10
The Wanderers succumbed to their second defeat of the season, despite a late revival, against a stubborn and resilient Beddau side.
“We must be smarter and more game aware” commented Martyn Fowler head coach “at present we are not getting continuity in training and its reflecting in our performance on a Saturday”
“Our new faces are certainly giving us a fresh dimension but games at this time of year come thick and fast and we need to pick our game up otherwise the season becomes a long hard one” added Manager Mark Gould.
On a bright sunny afternoon in Beddau a two minutes silence, for the Queen’s passing was impeccably observed by both crowd and players before the Wanderers kicked off with the slope in their favour. The visitors began brightly against, what was a resolute Beddau defence all afternoon. Trying to go through the phases they moved the ball back and forth but had little penetration. Alfie Llewellyn did go close after he gathered a chip by Tom Francis but as the visitors tried to recycle they were penalised for an offence at a ruck. The game showed little continuity in the first quarter and there was a series of penalties against both sides as players fell foul of the referee’s whistle. The home side started to get into their stride and resorting to close quarter driving on the back of several penalties they eventually broke the deadlock forcing their way over. The conversion was good and Beddau were ahead 7-0. The pressure was all on the Wanderers and it was made all the more difficult when Osian Phillips received a yellow card after another ruck offence. Surviving the tough 10 minutes with a man down it seemed that the visitors would make it to the half time break only the one try behind but as the game went into injury time Beddau struck again. On the back of two 5 metre driving lineouts and another penalty advantage they forced their way over for their second try to send the sides into the break at 14-0.
The Wanderers made two early changes with Eddie Drake and Morgan Hughes joining the fray as they looked to get some momentum into their game. Both forwards and backs carried well putting some pressure onto the home side who continued to dig deep whenever they were forced to defend. Once again it was a penalty that provided a scoring opportunity. The Wanderers applied a driving lineout of their own and as it was held up Hughes broke blind and he fed Morgan Williams who forced his way over to score 14-5. The visitors at last looked to put some decent rugby together but a lot of their play was too deep in the Wanderers half. This resulted in Beddau seizing a chance to restore the 14-point lead. A Wanderers attack out wide saw the ball given up too easily and the home side, with some slick offloading raced away to score their third try 19-5. That proved to be the crucial score as there was no real way back for the Wanderers. The last quarter did see a revival in Wanderers fortunes. Both Ioan Cooper and Shaun O’Rourke made significant breaks downfield as the visitors mounted attacks from deep and after a period of pressure Williams crashed over for his second try 19-10. The last minutes of the game saw the visitors mount several drives in the red zone but as was the fact all day the solid defence from the home side saw them home with a deserved victory. Final score 19-10.
Wanderers’ scorers:
Tries: Morgan Williams (2)
Management MOM: Steffan Davies
Massiv MOM: Morgan Williams
Pics on Flickr: https://flic.kr/ps/c7gzd