Division One West

Ammanford 27 Llangennech 25

Ammanford were made to work hard to maintain their four-match winning run but did enough to run out 27-25 winners against visiting Llangennech in a hard-fought contest.

Both sides were missing key players and the hosts gave a first start to young second row Daniel Wigley.

Ammanford started positively with an early penalty from outside-half Rhydian Morris before a strong break from full back Mike Evans saw scrum-half Aled James pop up in support to stroll over for the opening try, which Morris converted.

The homesters remained on the front foot and a smart passing move ended with centre Tom Rees touching down under the posts. The try was bittersweet for Rees as his afternoon ended due to a knee injury sustained during the score. Morris converted however to give the hosts a 17-0 advantage.

With the home support expecting another high-scoring romp, the game turned on its head as Llangennech battled back to amass 25 unanswered points.

The visiting forwards dominated the scrum and break-down area and a powerful run saw second row Matthew Jacobs power over. Outside-half Steve Hewitt added the extras.

From the restart, Llangennech were immediately back on the attack and again the forwards secured a pushover try. Hewitt’s extras ensured the sides went into the break with Ammanford 17-14 ahead.

The hosts looked to reclaim the momentum after the break, but blew a clear two-on-one chance five metres from the line.

Llangennch made the most of the let-off and some good phase play saw wing Gethin Long going over in the corner as the visitors took the lead for the first time.

They followed with a penalty in front of the posts which not only extended their advantage but saw Ammanford flanker Steffan Rees sent to the sin-bin.

Despite being down to 14 men, Ammanford came back strongly, led by replacement scrum-half Johnny Evans, who put the visitors under a great deal of pressure near their own line.

A quick tap-penalty saw Llangennech unable to resist a lunging tackle, which earned them a yellow card of their own.

From the ensuing scrum Morris forced himself over out wide and then slotted a very good conversion to reduce the arrears to 25-24 in the visitors’ favour.

With time running out Ammanford were awarded a 30-metre penalty which saw Morris coolly slotted over to reclaim the lead for the hosts.

Llangennech refused to roll over though and came with a last-ditch 44-metre penalty from the touch-line, which to the relief of the home side, drifted wide.