Bedwas earned a losing bonus-point at Bridgend in the Principality Premiership, but the 16-14 scoreline doesn’t reflect the home side’s dominance on October 31.
Bedwas started off brightly and showed some cohesion as they looked to get points to on the board, but all too often they dropped the ball, handing the impetus back to their hosts.
Bridgend took full advantage and their dominance in the tight bought reward as Bedwas were frequently out muscled into conceding penalties.
Bridgend took the lead after 12 minutes. A Bedwas raid deep in the home territory went badly wrong as a stray Andrew Waite pass was picked off by home fly half Joseph Scrivens, who raced 80 metres to score under the posts. he had no difficulty adding the conversion.
Bedwas tried to get back into the game but the home defence was in no mood to yield and no points materialised, as the dominant home pack snuffed out what little crumbs of hope they had.
It looked as though, for all those errors, Bedwas could possibly turn around after the break just one score behind.
But the home side had different ideas and shortly before the break home lock forward Ashton Evans burrowed over from a scrum. Scrivens added the extras to put his side 16-0 up at the interval.
The second half saw Bedwas in a more determined mood and for the first 20 minutes they dominated possession and territory, without quite threatening to break down the home defence.
Having made a host of substitutions, Bedwas’ patience was finally rewarded when full back Kurt Clabby found the space to dart over for a try, converted by Powell.
Less than five minutes later replacement Robson Blake forced his way for a try.
Powell’s normally reliable radar was off beam as his kicked sailed across the face of the goal and what would have been an equalising kick was squandered.
Bedwas were not finished but, although chances to pinch the win were there, passes did not go to hand and thee siege mentality of the home defence earned them a deserved victory, their third on the bounce after a difficult start to the season.
Bedwas stay ninth in the table after the defeat and host second-placed Aberavon on November 7 at 2.30pm.