Bedwas 18 – 8 Cardiff
Saturday, September 30, Bridgefield
An irrepressible Bedwas side continued their excellent early-season form to see off Cardiff and former head coach, Steve Law, in a hard-fought game on a wet afternoon.
First-half chances were few and far between, as both sides seemed to kick possession away at crucial times or possession was turned over, with the wet pitch also slowing down any invention.
Bedwas replaced hooker Dale Rogers with Alun Rees after 34 minutes as they looked to improve a dysfunctional lineout, but it was the visitors who grabbed the first points of the game. Fly-half Gareth Thompson notched a penalty after the referee adjudged Bedwas guilty of pulling down a rolling maul.
Steffan Jones levelled things up from the kicking tee early into the second half after previously missing a penalty before the break.
Cardiff grabbed the first try of the game after 58 minutes. A penalty kicked to the corner allowed centre Owen Lane to power through a gap in the home defence after good work from Thompson and Dan Fish.
Bedwas replaced their front-row on the hour mark and immediately won a penalty at the scrum. From the ensuing lineout, the referee adjudged Cardiff to have illegally pulled down the maul and awarded a penalty try to the hosts. To compound matters for the visitors, back-rower Reuben Tucker was adjudged the guilty party and dispatched to the sin-bin for a ten-minute rest.
With a dominant scrum Bedwas continued to attack and created an overlap on the left but the final pass went astray with the try line begging.
With less than ten minutes to play, a Bedwas catch-and-drive saw replacement hooker Alun Rees – who was making his first appearance of the season following surgery – driven over for a try to the right of the posts.
Steffan Jones was not enjoying the best of afternoons with the boot and his conversion attempt missed. However with two minutes to play he found the target to repel any thoughts Cardiff had of salvaging anything from the game.
• Match report and photography by Ian Lovell of Bedwas RFC.