Llanelli 57-13 Neath
Llanelli made it 6 wins on the bounce to finish off their Premiership regular season campaign. They now have to wait until next weekend to see whether they will feature in a relegation play off fixture against Pontypool. Should Bridgend win their final game against Pontypridd they will jump into the safe 11th spot, lose then Llanelli will be safe.
Llanelli ran in nine tries in a convincing win on a cold, blustery day at Parc y Scarlets. The game had four yellow cards, three for the home side and the other for the visitors. That might suggest that the game was somewhat feisty, but in truth it was keenly contested.
Neath started far brighter and enjoyed good possession and field position. On 8mins, full back Callum Hall slotted the first points from a penalty in front of the posts. From the restart, it was Llanelli who regthered the ball and centre Paul Asquith made a nice break to set up ruck ball five metres out. Neath conceded the penalty. From the scrum they forced the visitors to collapse the scrum and the referee awarded a penalty try.
Taylor Davies was yellow carded on 13mins for a deliberate knock on just inside the Llanelli half. Up popped Hall to slot a well struck penalty.
Llanelli’s second try come on 24 mins. Following some fine open play it was skipper Jonny Lewis who offloaded to flanker Dan Davies to complete the touchdown. Two minutes later it was the skipper himself who crossed for Llanelli’s third try following some neat inter play between forwards & backs.
Neath weren’t lying down though, far from it. They had a couple of chances to reduce the deficit when they had really good field position on the half hour. Llanelli defended well and kept the visitors out.
On 33 mins lock Chris Long peeled off a ruck, it looked like the ‘The opening of the Red sea’’ he burst thro to give a simple inside pass to Narberth No8 playing on permit Rich Rees to cross under the posts. Ioan Hughes added the goal.
At the half Llanelli led 24-6
Llanelli started the second half with good field position. A lineout on the 5metre line resulted in a series of drives, Chris Long powered over for Llanelli’s fifth try, Hughes again kicked the goal.
On 48mins, Dan Davis was yellowed for a high tackle. Neath set up a lineout 10 metres out, and following some good inter play in mid field saw Aaron Bramwell cross wide out. Again Hall completed the extras.
A few minutes later, a fine break by scrum half Gareth George was finished off by Jonny Lewis who crossed for his second try of the game. Again Ioan Hughes completed the extras.
Two yellows followed on the hour, Leon Randell for illegal tackle and Neath no8 Leon Ward for stopping a quick tap Penalty.
The final quarter saw both sides make numerous changes and the home side took advantage running in three further tries. Ed Kennedy, Ryan Davies & Replacement hooker Greg George completed the try scoring. Hughes slotted two of the three tries.
So, a fine win and now the wait!
Llanelli matchday squad
1 Craig Thomas 2 Taylor Davies 3 Simon Gardiner 4 Chris Long 5 Tom Price 6 Ed Kennedy 7 Dan Davis 8 Richard Rees 9 Gareth George 10 Ioan Hughes 11 Kalum Evans 12 Jonny Lewis (c) 13 Paul Asquith 14 Ryan Davies 15 Leon Randell
Replacements – 16 Greg George 17 Rhys Thomas 18 Richard Bassett 19 Jake Baker 20 Callum Jenkins 21 David Jones 22 Joe Roberts 23 Ben Atkins