Neath 18 Llanelli 21
18th September 2003

MATCH REPORT

A last kick of the game penalty by Llanelli outside-half Ceirion Thomas gave the visitors their first Premier League points as Neath slipped to their first League defeat.

Neath made 12 changes from the side that performed heroics in the 31-3 win at Carmarthen Quins and there was no doubt that Llanelli, fielding 7 of the Scarlets’ regional squad for Saturday, were the more complete unit.

Indeed, the visitors had the satisfaction of scoring the game’s two tries – first when Wales scrum-half Michael Phillips ran 30 metres virtually untouched from a tap-penalty and second when centre Gavin Evans took advantage of a Neath midfield re-arrangement to score under the posts. The boot of Thomas supplied their other 11 points.

Neath had a kicking hero of their own in outside-half Chris Anderson. He booted the ball like a left-footed Paul Thorburn and landed five penalties and dropped a goal. For his efforts, with the score locked at 18-18, he was made man-of-the-match by Ospreys coach Lyn Jones only to promptly miss a sitter of a penalty and then send a touch-kick out on the full that allowed Llanelli to set up their final kick.

Of the Neath forwards hooker Darren Poland looked lively enough, replacement lock Ben Davies was an effective lineout stealer and flankers Tom Davies and Simon Peters spared nothing.

Patience is the key to developing young players but Gnoll fans will be looking for more immediate rewards on Saturday when they visit old rivals Aberavon who now have the only 100% record left in the League.

Man Of the Match Award - Neath V Llanelli
Chris Anderson, receiving his bottle of champagne from Ospreys Head Coach, Lyn Jones, who chose Chris as man of the match in the fixture against Llanelli, played on Wednesday 18th September 2003