Division Three West A:

Haverfordwest 17-5 Pembroke Dock Harlequins

There was a good battle at Merlins Bridge as Haverfordwest moved fourth in the table after seeing off the gritty challenge of Pembroke Dock Harlequins.

Both teams were made to make a number of changes from the teams originally selected because of illness, injury and work commitments, especially in the Quins’ camp with some of their players on the shut-down at the Power Station, and it showed as Ossie Boswell’s boys had a bare 15 players and opted for uncontested scrums.

The Blues’ side was also unrecognisable from the original team selected but they had some influential players in young half backs Ollie Hughes and Liam Manwaring, prop Terry Lovell, Lewis Wood and flanker Richard Brazell, turning out to help the home side and playing with a vigour which belied the fact that ‘Trigger’ is now in his mid-40s!

It was Haverfordwest who opened the scoring from an opportunist try that stemmed from a Quins’ move breaking down in midfield before Ollie Hughes twice hacked forward and beat the cover defence to dive on the ball over the line, although it looked as if a penalty try might have been considered by referee Paul Richards.

But The Quins quickly made amends with a cracking try that stemmed from the ball-winning capabilities of Hywel Baker, Steff Halwood and Harry Owen that allowed half backs Ollie Lewis and Aaron Cookson to spread play right and winger Matthew Lewis supplied the scoring pass for skipper Thomas Doyle to dive over in the corner.

And although both teams had half chances there were inevitably errors in the awful conditions and half time arrived with both teams still sharing ten points.

The second half was equally as competitive but it was The Blues who started well for tight-head prop Lovell to crash over the line and Ollie Hughes added the extra points.

Halwood, Baker, George Bellmaine and Alex Pearce tried hard to raise the tempo but again half chances went abegging and The Blues sealed victory when full back Rhys Baker rounded off some quick hands to cross the whitewash and although the conversion went awry it mattered little because Haverfordwest were able to celebrate a win which puts them back into fourth place in the table.

Haverfordwest: Rhys Baker, Ben Skudder, Ollie Hughes, Dave O’Leary, Mark Stobbs, Liam Manwaring, Ollie Hughes, Cole Barry, Jamie Zambas, Terry Lovell, Paul Thomas, Tom Meehan, Steve Thomas, Richard Brazell, Lewis Wood. Replacements: Tom Carrington, Richard Little, Mark Wilson, Josh Atherton, Hywel Church.

Pembroke Dock Harlequins:  Liam Hargreaves-Gibson, Will Nico, Thomas Doyle, James Skeels, Matthew Lewis, Aaron Cookson, Ollie Lewis, Dai Rees, George Bellmaine, Rob Monk, Alex Pearce, Jack Brown, Hywel Baker, Harry Owen, Steffan Halwood.