Brilliant Borderers end season in style (From Western Telegraph)

Brilliant Borderers end season in style

Whitland 16 Newbridge 15 Referee: Nigel Owens

Whitland capped a remarkable second half of a very long and arduous first season in Division One with a narrow, but deserved win over a Newbridge side coached by former Newport and Wales hooker Mike Watkins.

Watkins told Telegraph Sport after the match that his team was short of a few key players but that he took nothing away from Whitland because they had battled all the way to the very last whistle.

Skipper Phil Morgan again led the Borderers by example and two of his main lieutenants in this tussle were prop Romeo Collella, playing with one eye closed because of an infection, and hooker Steve Gerrard, now 38 but having played almost every match with the spirit that he displayed when he came into the area from Rhydyfelin to play for Narberth, but with a sense of discipline that marks him as a great servant for the club.

They had to withstand some strong tactics from the Gwent side, not least in a massive first-half punch-up that did little credit to those involved before referee Nigel Owens finally managed to separate the warring factions.

Newbridge took the lead against the breeze with a neat try by centre Andrew Green after a great deal of hard work up front by Paul Douglas, Keirian Crawford and Gareth Howells - but Whitland were soon in front as their pack set up the stage and Rob Phillips fed Daniel Griffiths for the fly half to slice through from the 22 to the posts, adding the conversion for good measure.

Griffiths also slotted two penalties either side of a three-pointer by opposite number Jason Williams - and then went through the card of scoring options when he dropped a goal from near half way just before the half-time whistle.

Whitland were good value for a 16-5 lead but they fell for a sucker punch straight after the restart as Williams caught them unawares on their own 22, cleverly kneeing the ball over the threequarters for centre Gareth Turner to pouch the kindly bounce and speed to the posts for Williams to convert.

Early in the season such a set-back might have caused a collapse for the Borderers but with Anthony Jakeman, Fakataha Mollitika and especially Derek Thomas maintaining control the visitors rarely looked likely to score, with Green trying a long-range drop-goal as their frustration mounted against superb Whitland tackling that was continued by Collella and Gareth Williams when he joined the fray for the industrious Ricky Davies.

Daniel Griffiths and Gavin Morris also tried dropped goals in vain for the Borderers and the teams were still separated by a single point after playing two of the three extra minutes added on by Mr Owens, who had a good game in control.

But then he awarded a penalty to Newbridge 58 metres out and Williams decided to use the breeze to launch a last-gasp attempt at snatching a result.

Fortunately for the Whitland faithful it sailed wide but there was still another nerve-jangling moment when full back Wayne Lewis was adjudged to have deliberately knocked on and Williams had another bite of the cherry from 40 metres.

His kick was again wide though, and Whitland finished off a memorable season with a victory - and further good news from a delighted general manager Dai John, who told Telegraph Sport that key players like Jakeman; Mollitika, Mike Buckingham, Derek Thomas and Phil Morgan had already re-signed for next season, along with the old war-horses like Gerrard and Collella.

Whitland: Wayne Lewis: Craig Richards; Lee Banfield; Domenico Setaro; Gavin Morris: Daniel Griffiths; Rob Phillips: Romeo Collella; Steve Gerrard; Ricky Davies: Anthony Jakeman; Fakataha Mollitika: Randall Williams; Phil Morgan; Derek Thomas. Replacements: Simon Rogers; Steve Butchers; Dai Jones; Gareth Williams; Dafydd Lewis; Rob Norton; Dai Ebsworth.