6:10am Wednesday 1st October 2008
Pontyberem 36.
Haverfordwest 9.
Pontyberem maintained their unbeaten start to the campaign and record of claiming a bonus point in each of their four matches.
But the final margin of victory did not do justice to the part a battling Haverfordwest side played in an entertaining match.
The Blues took an early six-point lead and were only 12-6 adrift at the interval and were still very much in contention at 15-9 with 11 minutes left before Ponty grabbed two converted tries in a minute, followed by a last-ditch seven-pointer.
It left the final scoreline a little skewed and the Blues’ performance was all the more praiseworthy since they had Jamie Dalton and Jonathan Venables playing their first games of the season and Andrew Thicker called out of retirement to sit on the bench.
The Haverfordwest pack went particularly well against bigger opposition and earned penalties after six and 13 minutes which club skipper Steve Williams kicked.
But from the kick-off they made an error which allowed the homesters to strike back and centre Kelvin Rees dived over in the corner.
Even worse was to follow when Ponty turned defence into attack after a mark made a metre from their own line allowed them to counter-attack and 99 metres later centre Daniel Griffiths claimed a corner try which Mike Sauro did well to convert.
After Sauro and Williams had exchanged penalties in the third quarter there was still much to play for, but then Ponty struck twice in as many minutes through left winger Emyr Walters and then scrum half Adrian Williams, both tries converted by Sauro to make the game safe.
Deep in injury time Pontyberem added a fifth try when forward pressure saw second row Christian Lewis score wide out and Sauro added the extra points from the final kick of the match to keep Ponty well ahead at the top.
But the Blues showed real commitment and will surely climb the table if they can maintain this sort of performance.
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