Caerphilly RFC secured their second victory of the season against fellow Division 2 East team Nantyglo, outscoring the visitors by two tries to one to win 12-11 on December 6.
Caerphilly opened the scoring after seven minutes. They won a penalty in their own half and full back Lloyd Rowlands found a good touch in the 22.
A strong catch and drive from the Caerphilly pack saw them drive up to the line and flanker Gareth England grounded the ball from the back of the ruck to give the home side the lead.
Nantyglo had to wait until the 24th minute for their reply, when full back Spencer Crawley converted their first penalty, after a Caerphilly infringement.
The visitors missed a golden opportunity on 31 minutes. A stereotyped long pass from Rowlands was intercepted in midfield deep within the visitors 22.
Rowlands and the Caerphilly defence made an amazing recovery to catch the centre just yards from the line, before winning a penalty to relieve the pressure.
Caerphilly gave away the lead on the stroke of half-time. From a scrum on the halfway line, the visitors held the ball well and with the Caerphilly pack breaking up and advantage being played, Nantyglo made strides up-field.
Caerphilly killed the ball on the deck to give Crawley an easy conversion for the lead.
Caerphilly took advantage of numbers in the 49th minute. With two Nantyglo players injured during a break from defence, Caerphilly won a penalty deep into the 22.
Quickly taken, the ball was passed wide to left wing Dan Jones, who forced his way past the last defender to score in the corner.
Rowlands added the difficult conversion to give the home side a 12-6 lead which they held until injury time.
Missed penalties late in the game from both full backs, and a yellow card for both sides set up a tense finale which didn’t disappoint.
A break from deep saw wing Oliver Griffiths cut the Nantyglo defence to shreds to set up centre Will Worthington for what appeared to be a simple walkover try, but referee Gareth Butler brought them back for a forward pass.
Minutes later replacement Stephen Jones crossed for the visitors out wide, but Crawley missed the conversion that would have taken them into the lead.
With seven minutes of injury time to play, the home side held the slender one point lead.
Breaking up-field in the final minutes, Caerphilly appeared to make another breakthrough. But as the ball was buried during a ruck, referee Butler gave the scrum to the visitors.
From the base of the scrum, the visitors broke wide. A kick ahead was well claimed out wide, and it appeared that Nantyglo had gone over in the corner, only for the referee to disallow the try.
L John, of Nantyglo, was sent off with a red card and a penalty was awarded to Caerphilly. The referee blew for full-time as the penalty crossed the side line to give Caerphilly a welcome win.
The side travel to Newport Saracens for their next game, the week before Christmas, on December 20 at 2.30pm, whilst the Youth team entertain Cowbridge at Virginia Park in the third round of the Welsh Cup.
• Match report and picture by Mark Tamplin