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Abersychan 20 Cwmcarn 17

Last Kick Misery for Carn
On a freezing Saturday afternoon on a frost laden hill, Cwmcarn played Abersychan on their turf. I use the term turf, loosely; as it was pretty solid in places, thanks to the cold snap. The snow covered hills just above the pitch were a give away.  Both teams were glad of the run-out, with all the recent cancellations due to rain.
Unusually Cwmcarn started brightly and scored two quick tries, courtesy of our bronzed captain, Jabba and Rhys Seeborne. For a wee fella, Seebie showed some real strength to barge though two tacklers, for his try in the corner. Carn sensed that an easy afternoon's work lay ahead; given the difficult season Abersychan seem to have been having.
Complacency - Well known to be the enemy of progress; certainly was for Cwmcarn. A touch of arrogance was creeping into play and Abersychan weren't reading the same script. Even when Chris Bartlett- Legge scored another trademark speed-merchant try, Abersychan did not cave in. Dan Evans converted one and came close with the others from wide out. All was looking rosy in the garden...or so we thought...
As the half-time whistle went, Carn were 17-5 up. The scrum was good, but could have been even better; the line-out was functioning, but could have been better and we were making our tackles. Unfortunately, Carn never woke from the 3rd gear malaise, Abersychan made a few substitutions and came out in determined fashion. Cwmcarn spent much of the time camped in Abersychan's half, but had white line fever - which only tells half the story, as Abersychan were tackling ferociously. Any spilled ball was snaffled up by Aber's back row and generally kicked 50-60 metres downfield, where no-one was at home. This led to 2 tries in fairly quick succession for Aber. Their last was embarassing, as they simply ran through the centre of a ruck with no-one at home again. From a comfortable lead, it was suddenly 17-17 and not much time left on the clock.
With 5 minutes left, Carn woke up and with a dominant scrum, should have had a penalty try, when we pushed Aber over their line from a scrum, only for their flanker to kick the ball out, unseen by the referee. With crash ball after crash ball coming up short thanks to some good Abersychan tackling, the ball was eventually turned over and kicked downfield again. Aber chased furiously and with the ball just outside the 22, Carn infringed - Penalty Abersychan. As the ball went over the final whistle went and Carn were left ruing missed opportunities and an over-confident attitude.

 

David Richards
rothrock1@aol.com