Laugharne 6pts   Llanybydder 22pts

Having only played one game in the last eight weeks, Laugharne were evidently lacking in competitive match practice and were reeling from a two try blast from Llanybydder within the first ten minutes. Laugharne won the toss and gave Llanybydder the advantage of the diagonal breeze. Llanybydder kicked off and immediately put pressure on Laugharne who were unable to gather the ball cleanly. The ball came back on the Llanybydder side who with their backs made telling in-roads into the Laugharne 22. From the ensuing ruck they won the ball and flyhalf Darren Williamson had the presence of mind to dart round the blind side of the ruck to score in the corner, much to Laugharne`s disbelief. With an excellent effort from the touchline, full back Barry Thomas added the conversion to give Llanybydder an encouraging start.

 From this early setback, Laugharne started to make amends with their front row of props Robert Jones and Richard Davies together with hooker Martin Jones beginning to gain the upper hand in the scrums. In the 5th minute wing Alistair Chambers reduced the deficit with a well struck penalty in front of the Llanybydder posts for one of their players straying offside.

 From the restart, Laugharne again found themselves in the Llanybydder half and threatened their line on a number of occasions, but the Llanybydder defence was steadfast to a man. If anything, Laugharne were guilty of playing the ball too close to their forwards as they battered away, but making little progress. Powerful Laugharne wing Steve Hartland was neglected during this period, when he would have made a difference had he`d received the ball. In the 10min, to `add insult to injury` when Laugharne looked as if they would score with the Llanybydder line beckoning, with the ball being released along the line, the pass was intercepted by flyhalf Williamson who outpaced the despairing cover defence to hare 90m to the Laugharne posts to score and subsequently ` knock the stuffing out` of Laugharne. Fullback Thomas made no mistake with the simple conversion attempt to give Llanybydder a healthy 14pts -3pts lead.

For much of the remainder of the half, the game degenerated into a series of scrums, lineouts and penalties as both sets of forwards tried to get the upper hand. Despite Laugharne being rock solid in the scrums, the Llanybydder back row were quicker as an unit to the breakdown to snuff out any threatening Laugharne play and were also more adept at winning `turn over` ball at the breakdown. Laugharne closed the gap slightly with Chambers slotting over his 2nd penalty in the 15th min for offside, but in the 21st min the lead was restored as Thomas kicked a penalty from in front of the Laugharne posts for a Laugharne player handling on the floor in the ruck.

 Laugharne restarted the 2nd half, but once again the game was not much of a spectacle as Laugharne kept trying but going nowhere and Llanybydder happy to sit on their 11pts lead. Laugharne played into their hands with little of a team plan with several of them playing as individuals, getting isolated and losing possession at critical moments. Laugharne did have opportunities to win the game and had at least three clear cut chances with the Llanybydder line at their mercy, but were squandered with either a poor pass or the inability to hold onto the pass. Laugharne need no excuses to show how poorly they played but credit to Llanybydder, who were definitely the better team on the day. With the game running down to full time Llanybydder had a stranglehold on Laugharne as then kept them pinned in their own 22 for the final minutes. Eventually the ball squirmed out and going to the blind side fullback Thomas was up in support to take the final pass and crash over in the corner for the final try much to the rapturous delight of their hardy band of supporters.

 Laugharne will look back at this game `as the one that got away`, with the string of postponed games before Christmas not helping matters, They now they need to regroup and restore confidence with a difficult away match at near rivals Haverfordwest, next Saturday and having not completed half their quota of fixtures for the season, yet!

 Alun Jenkins Team Manager Laugharne R.F.C.