Merthyr RFC 42 – 3 Bargoed RFC
Saturday December 31, Merthyr Tydfil
Bargoed sit firmly on the bottom of the Principality Premiership after a big defeat to second-placed Merthyr on New Year’s Eve.
Bargoed travelled to the Wern looking to back up their excellent win against Bridgend on Christmas Eve – just their second of the season – only to find the Ironmen in superb form, still smarting from their defeat to RGC1404.
Both sides traded penalties in the early exchanges, before Bargoed were reduced to 14 men when centre Darren Humphries was sin-binned for a high tackle. There was no element of danger around the tackle, but new directives meant referee Craig Evans was left with little choice. Matthew Jarvis slotted the kick to give Merthyr a 6-3 lead.
Bargoed’s best chance of the half came when Humphries was still off. After hooker Ian Jenkins failed to keep control of the ball over the try-line, play was brought back for an earlier infringement. Bulls full-back Calum Jones kicked to touch five-metres out, and Bargoed were once again denied from the lineout, despite the best efforts of second-row Josh Jacas.
The game’s first try came on the half hour mark, as a deft cross-field kick from Merthyr’s fly-half Dean Gunter was snapped up by winger Kyle Evans to score. Jarvis’s conversion went wide, but he made amends ten minutes later with another penalty to take the scores to 14-3 at half time.
Gunter pulled off the same feat to foil the Bargoed defence once again just after the break, this time with opposite winger Terri Gee collecting to make it 21-3.
A penalty try on 57 minutes put paid to Bargoed’s hopes and saw openside flanker Alex Herbert sent to the bin, while Merthyr flanker Tom Daly took advantage of a mistake from the restart to score Merthyr’s bonus point try.
Gee made it a brace shortly after with a fine solo effort, and Jarvis rounded off a fine afternoon with the boot with a final conversion.
To their credit, Bargoed never folded, and hammered away at the Merthyr line, looking for a consolation try.
Successive penalties on the try-line deep into injury time saw Merthyr reduced to thirteeen men with two late yellow cards, but the Bulls couldn’t cross the whitewash as the match finished 42-3 and condemned Bargoed to bottom of the Premiership.
• Match report by Peter Greening of Bargoed RFC.