After their heroic midweek exploits against fellow title contenders Ammanford, where they came close in a 16pts - 11pts epic battle, Laugharne returned to their Saturday fixture against lowly Cwmgors. The pre-match mood in the Laugharne dressing room was not good and with the fact that Cwmgors did not have adequate

 front row cover the match started from the `off` with uncontested scrums. Taking away this facet of play does devalue the game, but Laugharne can be thankful that the opposition did turn up. Cwmgors won the toss and gave Laugharne the advantage of the stiff breeze. Flyhalf Ross Harries kicked off and Laugharne were soon camped in the Cwmgors 22 and in the 5th minute after repeated probing by the Laugharne backs, Cwmgors were penalised under their own posts for not released the player in the tackle. Harries made no mistake with the straightforward kick to give Laugharne an early lead.

 Cwmgors were not going to lie down against the Laugharne onslaught and for periods throughout the match they would pick up the ball and using their forwards to good effect would drive into the heart of the Laugharne defence. However they did not reckon on the thundering tackling of flanker Anthony James and No.8 Kevin Pearce, who kept them at bay. In the 15th nimute, Harries increased Laugharne`s lead with his 2nd penalty attempt from just outside the Cwmgors 22 for handling the ball in the ruck, but Laugharne were certainly not having it all their own way, as Cwmgors frustrated them by stopping promising moves, by any means possible. With Laugharne not exploiting the strenght of the wind to much effect, Cwmgors probably felt it was `job well done` as half time approached. But Laugharne had one more sting in their tail with wing Steve Hartland picking up a loose clearance kick in the Cwmgors half. He set off into the middle of the field and had full back Shaun Lynch in support. Lynch then combined with flyhalf Harries who then released centre Huw Jenkins who took the ball deep into the Cwmgors 22. He then passed back to Harries who had centre Nick Thomas on his shoulder to crash over for an unconverted try to give Laugharne a little more breathing space on the stoke of half time.

 Cwmgors restarted the 2nd half and probably felt that they were on the verge of achieving a memorable victory with the wind at their backs and they reinforced this belief with No.8 P.John crashing over for an unconverted try in the 15th minute of the half. From the restart Laugharne killed off any hopes Cwmgors may have had with fullback Lynch rounding off a promising move with centres Thomas and Jenkins prominent to restore Laugharne`s lead with an unconverted try. Laugharne continued to pressurise Cwmgors and despite the lack of meaningful scrums they still had them in trouble with skipper Phil Brown and props Robert Jones and Andrew Phillips picking up and driving forward at every opportunity. In fact due to the relentless pressure Phillips was on hand to sieze on to an unfortunate knock on by the Cwmgors midfield under their own posts to claim the opportunist try. Harries added the simple conversion with a drop goal attempt to take Laugharne within one try of a bonus point. This was finally achieved from an initial lineout on half way. Livewire scrum half Adam Davies fed half back partner Harries who then had the vision to float a delightful long pass into the hands of substitute fullback Simon Davies. Davies carried the ball forward before passing back inside into the grateful hands of centre Jenkins who scored under the Cwmgors posts. Harries again added the simple conversion attempt to close Laugharne`s account and secure the winning bonus point. Cwmgors continued to battle on and in the dying minutes were awarded a penalty try after a Cwmgors player was tackled without the ball, after he had kicked ahead with the try line at his mercy. Flyhalf G.Evans added the conversion to give Cwmgors some respectability, but for Laugharne it was `missiom accomplished`, although they will have far stiffer opposition in the next few weeks until the end of the season.

Next week Laugharne play Cardigan away, team coach to leave laugharne at 12-15pm.

 

Alun Jenkins  Team Manager  Laugharne R.F.C.