Caerphilly suffered at the hands of Abergavenny in the wake of a decision to send centre James Rowles off with a straight red on 74 minutes, losing 17-29 on October 18.
A tackle by Rowles resulted in a 30 minute delay in the game to wait for an ambulance to attend to his injured opposition number, while he was given a straight red card.
The first seven minutes saw the visitors awarded five penalties, eventually leading to a converted try by Dan Bevan. courtesy of a catch and drive down the right hand side. Centre Dan Smith converted.
Two missed touches from the home side put the visitors back in the driving seat before Caerphilly outside half Lloyd Rowlands finally converted a penalty in front of the posts.
Smith restored the gap minutes later, converting a penalty for the visitors. The ebb and flow of the match yielded no points in the remainder of the half, however the visitors did lose a player to the bin a minute before the break, with a deliberate failure to retreat 10 meters from a penalty.
The visitors lost another player to the bin in an identical manner within a minute of the re-start, failing to learn a lesson. From the resultant penalty Rowlands reduced the deficit, before adding another five minutes later to level the score.
Caerphilly narrowly escaped a charge down on 52 minutes before a serious injury to captain Vaughn Thomas brought a halt to play on 54 minutes.
Restored to a full team, Abergavenny extended their lead on 59 minutes courtesy of a replacement back row, Smith added the difficult conversion.
Another yellow card for the visitors gave the home side an opportunity which prop Geraint Pymm took well, diving through a ruck in the corner to level the scores with ten minutes remaining.
Controversy broke on 74 minutes as the visitors broke down the right. A crunching tackle from centre Rowles left his opposite number hitting the ground hard having released the runner outside him to score.
Having viewed the player on the ground, it was adjudged that the tackle was dangerous and Rowles was given his marching orders.
A break of 30 minutes whilst waiting for the ambulance gave the side’s time to reflect, before Smith added the conversion.
A try at the death gave the visitors a bonus point, robbing the home side of a losing bonus point.
October 25 sees the Virginia Park outfit test their skills against Division 1 South Central side Ynysybwl in the second round of the Swalec Plate at 2.30pm.
The second XV travel to Ynysowen and the youth team welcome Gilfach Goch in their second round fixture of the WRU Youth cup.