Neath 36 Bonymaen 6

Match Report
After seeing The Ospreys perform at Narberth last Friday night I felt somewhat homesick and couldn’t wait to get down to the Gnoll tonight to see how the club side was going to perform.

The main stand seemed full and a good crowd had turned up to get the opportunity to see the "new boys" in action.

Bonymaen opted to play in black with red stripes so the home side turned to the ever faithful away kit of last season; the blue lycra. Somewhat confusingly this game was to be split into three periods of 25 minutes.

It was great to see Mark Jones once again lead out the side and he was largely a familiar face in a squad of unfamiliar faces. Matthew Jones has certainly grown in stature since joining the Ospreys and it was great to see him back at The Gnoll helping out with a friendly fixture.

The game started scrappily but Neath were the first to put points on the board with a well worked try by John Leyshon which was converted by Jones.

Bonymaen replied a while later with a penalty by Outside Half Anthony Evans and James Mckenna was despatched to the Sin Bin. After the first period the visitors were trailing by 7 points to 3.

On his return Gareth John scored a superb try after some great running by the home team attacking Bonymaen’s left flank. The try went unconverted.

Bonymaen however soon replied, though, with a well taken drop goal by Richard Thomas to make it 12 points to 6.

Neath stepped up a gear in the last third of the game as both the Dorian Grey of Welsh Rugby, Mark Jones, and the evergreen Roland Phillips took to the field. Roland’s influence manifested itself almost immediately on the game. The forwards were suddenly hungry for the ball and rolling mauls appeared as if from nowhere with Roland marshalling things at the rear. And the Coach himself soon crashed over from a menacing rolling maul which was converted by replacement outside half Chris Anderson, making the score Neath 19 Bonymaen 6.

The Welsh All Blacks soon scored again courtesy of Evans which was once again converted by Anderson.

It was this point in the game with Neath doing so well that it dawned on me. Not once had a chant of "Neath, Neath, Neath, Neath" been heard. Are the supporters saving this for next Friday’s Ospreys v Worcester friendly ?

But I digress, back to the match. Despite being pinned down in their own 22 for much of the final minutes, the home side were by now, unstoppable and punished Bonymaen with a well worked try scored by hooker Andrew Littlehales with Anderson converting again to take it to the final score of Neath 36 Bonymaen 6.

Not a classic by any means but as I overheard a man telling his father as they walked away from the ground; "There’s plenty of talent there and they’ll more hold their own next season in the Welsh League". Nuff said like.

Try Scorers, John Leyshon, Gareth John, Roland Phillips, Mickey Evans, Andrew Littlehales.
The Referee was Anthony Aplin of Bryncoch.

Match Report © "Mourner"