Pontllanfraith hosted local rivals Hollybush in a close fought league encounter. Despite many of the weekends fixtures succumbing to the weather, the Welfare ground was in great condition and passed the morning pitch inspection.
The visiting side started the stronger, with some big carries from their prop David Reynolds getting them into Pont territory early on. This resulted in the opening score, a penalty for Hollybush. Soon after there was a lengthy delay for a neck injury to one of the Hollybush backs. The visitors soon extended their lead after a scuffle broke out at a ruck in the Pont 22, the ref played on, and skipper Tom Hancock went over untouched to score the opening try. Pont responded well from the restart quickly moving into the Hollybush half and a beautiful run from Matthew Williams, scored the hosts first try under the posts, beating multiple defenders in the process. Klunk now has 5 tries in 4 games this year since switching from back row to centre.
HT: Pontllanfraith 7-10 Hollybush
In a similar manner to the first half, Hollybush started the second half strongly and increased their lead when centre Ben Nash went over in the corner and then converted the difficult conversion. This was probably the final time Hollybush would be Pont’s half of the field. What followed was wave after wave of Pont pressure. Following a driving maul, number 8 Jake Bean peeled off the back to get the home side back within one score. With both Holly’s props changed, Jarrad Hook and Ashton Morgan started to get the upper hand at scrum time. This combined with great work from captain Nathan Meyrick on the opponent’s lineout made it increasingly difficult for the visitors to secure their own set piece. Hollybush perhaps were lucky not to receive any yellow cards from the referee in the final 20 minutes for infringements near their line, but you can’t argue with the quality of their defending as they held out to secure the win.
FT: Pontllanfraith 12-17 Hollybush
A losing bonus point moves Pont move one place up the table before travelling to league leaders Bettws this weekend.
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