Bedwas survived a late Swansea onslaught on Friday March 16 to hold on to an important 15-20 away victory in the Principality Welsh Premiership.
But they so nearly lost after a stop-start performance in contrast to their recent run of good form.
Bedwas might have scored from their opening attack only for the ball to be mishandled to allow the home defence to clear.
But they made no such mistake on four minutes. Adam Williams raced through from deep and dived in the left-hand corner, but Steffan Jones’ missed the afters as his kick drifted wide.
On the 15-minute mark the referee penalised the home side’s scrum and Steffan Jones stroked home the penalty.
Swansea came back strongly and dominated possession but were unable to break through the Bedwas defence.
They eventually gained their reward after the Bedwas defence was offside and outside-half Gareth Walters successfully notched the penalty.
It was all Swansea at this stage and they looked odds on to score but winger Dan Howells dropped the ball with the line in sight.
The home side’s sustained attack saw Bedwas infringe once too often and James Richards trudged off for a ten-minute break in the sin-bin for pulling down a maul.
The home side used their numerical advantage to good effect and from a Bedwas-fed scrum drove the Bedwas pack backwards for number eight Jon Fox to collect a loose ball and crash over to score.
Walters’ conversion attempt went wide to leave the sides locked on eight points each at the interval.
Bedwas reopened their account six minutes into the second half. Andrew Waite and replacement Bryn Toms carried the ball deep into the home half. With all the forwards committed the ball was quickly moved to the opposite side of the field where Pat Lewis found space to cross.
Howells made up for his earlier error as he gathered a wide pass to cross in the corner and with Walters successfully adding the conversion the home side were ahead for the first time in the contest.
Bedwas knew they were in a game but heads didn’t drop.
Lewis Evans’ pass found left winger Matthew John, who sidestepped his marker before powering down the wing from 50 metres out handing off would be tacklers to make the line with a great piece of individual skill.
Steffan Jones finally found his range to add the icing on the cake, but the game was still finely balanced.
Bedwas might have improved their position but handling errors prevented any further score.
Swansea sensed they could get something from the game and the last five minutes saw Bedwas having to dig deep to keep the home side out as they pressed hard for a match-winning score.
With some stout defending the visitors held on for the win.
Match report and photography by Ian Lovell of Bedwas RFC
- Newport visit the Bridgefield on Tuesday March 20 for the rearranged WRU National Cup quarter final tie – kick-off 7.15pm. On Saturday March 24 current table toppers Carmarthen Quins are the visitors – kick-off 2.30pm.