A Sunday afternoon out in the Welsh capital beckoned for residents of Llandovery as the rugby club take on Merthyr in the Welsh Premiership Cup final at the Principality Stadium.

Drovers get the game started and apply early pressure but Merthyr cleared their lines quickly.

A couple of conceded penalties by the Drovers allows Merthyr to gain territory but a kick at posts rebounds off and falls to Drovers who attack but a good set of passes were ended with a dodgy pass, putting more pressure on Drovers to recover.

There was a lot of back and for with possession for the first 15 minutes, but in the 16th minute, Merthyr drew first blood with an interception try for Cole Swannock, converted by Josh Lewis.

Merthyr go down to 14 men after Craig Locke’s high and late tackle earns him a yellow card. The subsequent penalty and driving maul leads to hooker Taylor Davies scoring for Llandovery, with Ioan Hughes adding the extras and bringing Drovers level at 7-7. 

Josh Lewis adds a penalty and shortly before half time, Merthyr extend their lead with a Lloyd Rowlands unconverted try.

Drovers end the half with a positive run of play but a last ditch tackle pushes the winger out on the try line, with the referee blowing for half time and Merthyr keep their 15-7 lead.

Drovers get a fantastic start to the second half with a Harri Dole break but unfortunately for the Drovers, a subsequent pass in the 22 fails to find its man and Merthyr regain possession and clear their lines. Drovers get themselves back in the game from the resulting line out, with Davies bagging his second try, powering over the line despite two defenders having hold of him. The try is converted by Hughes bringing the score to a narrow 15-14 Merthyr lead.

There is more of an urgency from the Drovers and a good set of play ends with the ball lost forward a few metres from the Merthyr try line, but it is brought back for a Drovers penalty, coolly slotted over by Hughes to put Drovers in the lead for the first time.

Shortly before the 60minute mark, Lewis restores Merthyr’s lead to 18-17 after a penalty.

Much of the second half consisted of some scrappy play and both teams building their possession and territory stats, but it is halted for an injury to one of Merthyr’s players who walked off gingerly after a stretcher was brought onto the field.

A penalty - which did not go down well with Merthyr - allowed Hughes to bring Drovers to a 20-18 lead with less than 10 minutes to go.

Unfortunately, scrum half Lee Rees knocked the ball on, centimetres from the try line but it is brought back for a penalty. The final few minutes of the game was all Drovers and in the closing seconds, a scrap breaks out on the Merthyr try line as the TMO is called in to see if the Drovers end the game on a high. The try is disallowed but Drovers just get the win and are crowned the Welsh Premiership Cup Champions!