Whitland 13
Corus 17
Whitland gifted two converted soft tries and a penalty as they slipped to a disappointing home defeat at the hands of Corus.

The homesters led 13-0 at the break, but the visitors clawed their way back and all The Borderers had to show for their efforts was a losing bonus point.

The Borderers opened the scoring after 12 minutes when good work up front by Raff Williams, Aled Richards, Aidan Laxton and Gareth Lloyd set up the chance for scrum half Huw Rees to slot a penalty.

Rees added another three-pointer after Jonathan Thomas had set up a clear-cut chance for Mike Georgiou but the centre slipped and was unable to score a try - but Corus conceded a penalty straight afterwards in front of their own posts.

Corus No 10 Simon Evans missed a penalty chance before Whitland scored the first try of the match when full back Johnny Morgan pouched a clearance attempt, chipped forward, did well to regather his second kick and supply Alex Pickersgill with the scoring pass for the winger to score in the left corner.

Rees converted from wide out and a 13-0 interval lead was certainly no more than the Borderers deserved.

But then Corus benefitted from some poor decision-making by Whitland, the first allowing a soft interception try after the Borderers had worked a three-to-one overlap but a floated pass allowed replacement Corus winger John Phillips to intercept and speed 65 metres to the posts for full back Cody Rees to add the extra points. It meant that instead of being 20-0 in front the Borderers were only 13-7 to the good!

Even worse was to follow as the Borderers lost attacking ball again and Corus did well to swing play wide so that Phillips outpaced the home cover on a 70 metre run, and then managing to go near enough to the posts for Rees to add the conversion points.

It put Corus in front and although the Borderers went close with a Huw Rees penalty which fell just short of the posts, it was Corus who rounded off the scoring with a penalty by Cody Rees after a Whitland player had tried to run the ball out of defence but was cleverly isolated by the Steel Men’s cover to set up the simplest of kicks.

It meant that the visitors were able to celebrate victory as reward for their dogged persistence and move into third place in the table but Whitland could and should have won this tussle but showed a lack of awareness at key moments which threw away much of their momentum at just the wrong time.

Whitland: Johnny Morgan, Dion Thomas, Carwyn Jones, Mike Georgiou, Alex Pickersgill, Jonathan Thomas, Huw Rees, Gareth Lloyd, Marc Jones, Aled Richards, Raff Williams, Aidan Laxton, John Bowen, Ryan Michael (Capt), Luke Kendall. Replacements: Andrew Davies, Gareth Jones, Carl Smith, Aled Thomas, Dafydd Williams.

Corus: Cody Rees, Richard Thomas, Aled Bevan, Mike Davies, Bemi Fisher, Simon Evans, Rory Gallagher, Liam Grice, Simon Crocker, Ryan Thomas, Paul Clapham (Capt), Matthew Davies, Andy Llewellyn, Rhys Tucker, Chris Kinsey. Replacements: Geraint Lang, Ryan Curtis, Rowan Davies, Rob Morgans, John Phillips.