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After a good win on road last week Ponty were home to Cwmgwrach, a team that has often been difficult for the Cherries in recent years.  

On remembrance weekend the two teams lined up for a minutes silence which began and ended with whistle blows from referee Simon Davies (from Aberdare). It was a poignant moment and some of the supporters were made aware that Bryn Lewis a former Pontardawe player was killed in action 100 year ago in the battle of Ypres.

The first points of the game went to Cwmgwrach some 10 minutes into the game with a try that came from a good attacking kick into the corner touch from which they stole the lineout to drive over for a good try which was subsequently converted. Ponty almost replied immediately with a good running attack into the oppositions corner but were thwarted when they lost their own line-out 5 yards out.

Nevertheless during another attack Ponty flanker Nigel Williams noticed that no one was at home behind the oppositions back line and called for the ball to be kicked through which he ran after and successfully snatched from a struggling opposition full back to score Ponty’s first try which was converted by Leon Withey, to bring the scores level. Cwmgwrach struggled with the restart (as they did for the rest of the game) awarding Ponty a scrum on the half way line time and time again, which they relished. A cracking piece of running rugby and good inter-play between centre Mike Hodges and winger Arron Burford saw the latter run in a good try which went unconverted. So at the end of the first quarter Ponty were ahead, dominating the scrums but losing the line-outs.

The second quarter saw some good rugby played by Cwmgwrach who had nearly all the possession. A stylish individual try was scored by their outside half with a lovely angled run of some 30 yards to score not far from the posts facilitating an easy conversion.  So at half time the score line was 12 - 14 in favour of the visitors.

During the half time pep talk perhaps Ponty had worked out how to secure their own line-out ball which they did 5 minutes into the second half to launch an attack that ultimately led to them being awarded a penalty in front of the posts from which they regained the lead. From here on in they went from strength to strength led from an increasingly dominant scrummage, which was wreaking havoc on the opposition players many of whom needed to be substituted. After a particularly intensive scrummaging period a pick up from the back saw Phill Beynon go over for a power play try to bring to end the third quarter.

Cwmgwrach’s hopes were not helped in any way when their ball player No 10 was yellow carded for a high tackle. From the resulting Ponty scrummage more power play led to Burger crashing over for the third Ponty try.

On and on went the Ponty scrummage creating huge pressure on the opposition which led to very poor clearance kick straight to the feet of Tristan Davies who couldn’t believe his luck and picked up the ball to run 15 yards into a sparsely defended try line to score the last points of the match.

All in all a good performance and it's a shame that the next game is a few weeks away because of the Internationals as Ponty currently have the momentum with them.