Wasps win as reward for battling display (From Western Telegraph)

Wasps win as reward for battling display

Division Five (West):

Llangwm 14 Penygroes 13

Llangwm gained revenge for a 23-15 defeat at Penygroes as they kept their discipline to edge home in the return fixture at Pill Parks.

Although the game was marred by a mass punch-up in front of the stands after home winger JoJo Francis had clearly been punched by the Penygroes prop in the second period, when the score stood at 14-3 in the Wasps' favour. The homesters took exception to this act on their young winger and after order had finally been restored by the referee the offending play was given the red card for his action.

The break seemed to cause the Wasps to lose a little of their concentration, but with coach Alan McClelland urging them to regain their composure from his touch-line patrol they restricted the opposition to two unconverted tries by pacy winger Phil Morgan.

The Wasps looked sharp in the first period, with the wind and slope in their favour and with half backs Andrew Harries and skipper Henry Thomas keeping their pack moving forward. The return of pocket battleship Will Scale alongside Aneurin Jones and Andrew Phillips was a real plus for Llangwm, with new full back Andrew Williams always looking to join centres Chris Sanders and Greg McCann in attack as well as looking solid in defence in cahoots with Francis and co-winger Dai Thomas. The Wasps took a deserved lead when Penygroes tried in vain to run out of defence and Francis did really well to pick up the loose ball, round his opposite number and cut inside the full back for a try under the posts, which Harries converted with ease.

Richard Scriven added try No 2 after good work by Hamish Nicholls and Wayne English set the platform for several phases where the ball was recycled before the burly Scriven was well placed when skipper Thomas popped the ball up near the visitors' line. 'Ackie' Harries again added the extras to give his side a 14-0 interval lead which was no more than they deserved.

Penygroes full back Ceri Davies opened their account with a penalty and winger Morgan sliced through for his try brace - but Davies missed both conversions and justice was done since anything other than a Wasps' win would not have done justice to the part that Llangwm had played in picking up their fourth victory of the campaign.

Llangwm: Andrew Williams: JoJo Francis; Chris Sanders; Greg McCann; Dai Thomas: Andrew Harries; Henry Thomas: Gareth Bevan; Johnny James; Richard Scriven: Hamish Nicholls; Wayne English: Aneurin Jones (Mark Hicks); William Scale; Andrew Phillips. Replacements (not used): Simon Preddy; Dai James; James Lewis.