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Bedwas made it two wins from their first three games after beating St Peter’s at the Bridgefield on Saturday September 16.
Bedwas overcame their Cardiff-based opponents 33-27 in an entertaining WRU National Championship East clash.
The game saw eight tries, a red card and three yellow cards.
Kick-off was delayed by half an hour as the referee had a personal matter to attend, but there was no delay in the drama when the game eventually got underway.
Around a minute into the match, Bedwas second-row Jo Hole was adjudged to have spear-tackled a St Peters’ player and the referee brandished a straight red card.
St Peters took the lead from the resulting penalty as outside-half Che Thomas slotted between the posts.
But their lead didn’t last long as Bedwas’ James Dixon replied with a penalty kick of his own.
Despite being a man down, Bedwas were in no mood to surrender and took the lead after 12 minutes through a try from captain Dale Rogers.
Bedwas scored their second try five minutes later through second-row Tommy Chapman, with Dixon converting to put the hosts 17-3 up.
St Peters hit back just after the mid-point of the half through prop Tom Burnham, who was driven over for an unconverted try.
Again, Bedwas upped the ante and the concession of several penalties by St Peters close to the try-line saw the referee lose his patience and hand the visitors a yellow card.
Once restored to 15 men and with the half coming to an end, St Peters added a second try from former Bedwas stalwart Mike Dacey .
The try was again unconverted, meaning Bedwas went into the break with a 17-13 lead.
The lead was further extended three minutes into the second-half when replacement flanker Rhys Morgans exploited a gap in the visitors’ defence to dive in for a try.
Dixon’s conversion kick went wide but he successfully slotted a penalty five minutes later to increase the Bedwas advantage. 25-13 to the hosts.
St Peters responded and Bedwas winger Aaron Billingham was yellow carded for an alleged high tackle before George Hobbs pulled a try back for the visitors. Che Thomas’ conversion cut Bedwas’ lead to five points.
Another Dixon penalty upped Bedwas’ lead to eight points but St Peters hit back with a try from centre Ryan Newton, converted by Thomas, to bring them to within a point of Bedwas.
St Peters sensed victory but the Bedwas defence held firm before delivering the sucker-punch with just three minutes left to play. Replacement fullback Sam George squeezed in at the left-hand corner for a try, with Dixon missing the difficult conversion that followed.
However, it meant Bedwas were six points to the good with 78 minutes played – a lead they held onto to secure a 33-27 victory despite being a man down for most of the game.
Bedwas return to action on Saturday September 23, when they take on St Peters in a WRU Cup tie away from home.
Match report and imagery courtesy of Ian Lovell of Bedwas RFC
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