Newport RFC 12 – 20 Bedwas RFC
Saturday September 10, Rodney Parade
Bedwas overcame three sin-binnings to emerge as deserved visitors at local rivals Newport in the Principality Premiership.
Newport took the game to the visitors early on, but Bedwas defended stoutly and scoring chances were kept to a premium.
However, after a decent spell of Bedwas pressure, James Benjamin, returning to Rodney Parade, took a quick tap penalty and put fellow back-row colleague George Lee in for a try. Captain Richard Powell added the conversion.
Newport fly-half Arwel Robson reduced arrears midway through the first half with a penalty, and despite dominating in the tight, Bedwas couldn’t extend their four-point lead.
A series of scrums close to the home try line led to the referee issuing warnings to both front-rows about their binds, before Bedwas prop Dan Preece saw yellow after he was judged to have collapsed the following scrum.
Undeterred, Bedwas added a second Powell penalty, with the hosts unable to take advantage of their numerical supremacy.
Just before the interval, Bedwas were reduced to thirteen men as fly-half Powell was sin-binned for an alleged swinging arm, Arwel Robson added the resulting penalty to take the half-time score to 6-10.
With Preece restored to the front-five, Bedwas continued their strong forward game but were unable to add any further points.
Two Arwel Robson penalties within five minutes put the home side ahead for the first time in the game with ten minutes of the second half on the clock.
Bedwas responded by bringing on fresh legs and duly earned a penalty – which Powell slotted – to reclaim the lead by a solitary point.
Further reward finally came after good work by Connor Edwards and Pat Lewis. The visitors claimed valuable metres, before big forward Robson Blake bulldozed through the Newport defence for a try which was richly deserved after an afternoon of excellent ball carrying.
Powell added the extras to put Bedwas eight points ahead with seven minutes to play.
Rhys Verley became the third Bedwas player to be given an enforced break by the referee after being harshly adjudged to have taken out a Newport player without the ball, as he stood his ground at a kick-through.
With five minutes to play, Bedwas kept cool heads and possession to prevent the home side from gaining any territory as they held on for an important victory.
Bedwas are back in action on Saturday September 17 with a trip to the Wern Sports Park to take on newly-promoted Merthyr RFC. Kick-off is at 2.30pm.
• Match report and photography by Ian Lovell of Bedwas RFC.