Bedwas beat relegation rivals Llanelli 18-10 on Friday, March 8 to take a huge stride towards ensuring their Principality Premiership survival.
Tries from Jonathan Davies and Adam Williams were enough for Stefan Sankala’s side on a wet and windy night at the Bridgefield.
The win sees Bedwas move eight points ahead of Llanelli in the league table as the visitors failed to secure a bonus point.
Llanelli started the game strongly but Bedwas’ defence was resolute and kept the visitors at bay.
Bedwas flanker Jonathan Armitage picked up an injury and had to be substituted in the ninth minute. He was replaced by Liam Beer.
The first score of the game came ten minutes later, with Joseph Scrivens kicking a penalty to give the hosts a 3-0 lead.
Llanelli fullback Leon Randell had the chance to equalise but his kick sailed wide of the posts.
Randell made amends soon after, converting his kick in the 25th minute to level the scores.
Bedwas took the lead again seven minutes later. A close range try from second-row Davies was converted by Scrivens to give Bedwas a 10-3 advantage going into the second half.
A clever flick from Bedwas’ Tom Hoppe seven minutes into the second half saw the ball into the hands of winger Adam Williams, who sprinted in to score close to the corner flag from 25 metres out.
Scrivens’ conversion attempt drifted just wide but Bedwas now had a 15-3 lead.
But Llanelli refused to be beaten and after a period of dominating the territory, second-row Chris Long stretched out to score his side’s first try of the game.
Randell’s conversion cut Bedwas’ lead to just five points with more than 25 minutes remaining.
But the visitors were dealt a major blow when prop Ryan Thomas was shown a red card by referee Ben Whitehouse for a no-arms tackle to the head of Bedwas’ Gareth Allen.
After a few minutes of treatment, Allen was able to carry on and Scrivens was able to convert the penalty kick to increase the lead to eight points, with the game finishing 18-10 to Bedwas.
Bedwas have six games left to play as they battle to maintain their place in Wales’ top tier.
Bedwas travel to face Cardiff in the Welsh Cup on Saturday, March 23, before hosting RGC 1404 in the league on Saturday, March 30.
Report and imagery courtesy of Ian Lovell.