Llan put Tredagar to the Sword  - 06/03/2010 - TREDEGAR

SWALEC ONE EAST
TREDEGAR 7 LLANHARAN 54
High riding Llanharan put lowly Tredegar to the sword in this Swalec One East encounter at a cold Recreation Ground where pockets of snow still stood on surrounding hills.
It was an all round performance by the visitors, their pack outplaying Tredegar in all facets of the forward battle, rewarding coaches Colin Malone and Mathew Lloyd for the work put in this year.
The front row of Nathan Huish and his young props James Greenfield and Aled Richards had the home three in all sorts of trouble, James Connors used his giant from to good effect, the new back row unit of Lee Davies , Justin Jones and Bill Carey roamed the field effectively, and skipper Gareth Edwards kept the whole eight on task throughout.
Behind them was coolness personified in outside half Codey Rees who didn’t miss a kick to accumulate twenty four points on top of Llanharan’s six tries, taking his league total to 150, not to mention another classy act alongside him, centre Dai Atkins.
It was 26-7 at half time, the Dairymen building up the platform from which they could pursue the four tries needed for a bonus point. Huish was first to cross the line, Lee Davies’s lineout ball being helped along by telling inputs from James Connors and Dai Atkins, Codey Rees’s kicks taking it to 10-0.
But Tredegar‘s Dafydd James pinched one the other end against the run of play thanks to a series of missed tackles, ironically not long after Huish had taken a head.
However, Darren Pearce’s conversion was the last contribution of the struggling heads of the valleys’ side to the score board, Rees piling up more points with the boot and James Connors driving over the try line after James Greenfield had made the initial thrust.
Yet despite a yellow card Tredegar somehow managed to exert a lot of pressure in the third quarter before Elia Pellegrotti made a defence splitting run and sent full back Elliott Foils storming over with his prefect pass.
It signalled a non stop offensive for Gareth Edwards and his men in the final twenty minutes and three more tries, Tredegar again not helped by a second card from Swansea official Martin Lewis.
Glen Holloway put Dai Atkins into the gap for the first, a smart Codey Rees chip gave Foils his second, and finally, as Tredegar made yet another inept attempt to counter attack, Atkins ripped the ball and Aarron Pinches, a young centre who has made great strides this season, raced away to take the score over the half century mark and put Llanharan back up to third place in the table with a fifth consecutive win.
Senior coach Dennis John was pleased with the outcome but cautioned that harder battles would challenge his side in the closing months of the campaign, although he did quip that Gareth Edwards and his men were now safe from relegation!
Llanharan team: Elliott Foils (Wayne Jervis 73), Elia Pellegrotti, Aarron Pinches, Dai Atkins, Paul Adams, Codey Rees, Glen Holloway, James Greenfield ( Nick Kibble 68), Nathan Huish, Aled Richards, Gareth Edwards ©( Dai Quinn 68), James Connors, Lee Davies, Justin Jones (Mathew Phillips 77), Bill Carey (Nikki Allen 58).
Llanharan tries: Elliott Foils 2, Nathan Huish, Dai Atkins, James Connors, Aarron Pinches. Cons 6 and pens 4 – Codey Rees.

Injury hit Youth  - 06/03/2010 - Ystrad Rhondda (T-R Cup QF)

Jeff Pick reports:
With a bit of an injury crisis at the moment we felt that things should start to get better on sat, but we were hit again. Ross Pritchard and Rhys Haines pulling out during the warm up, Ross with a niggling shoulder problem and Rhys feeling faint. Added to our already walking wounded we fielded a young side in this cup game against, to be fair, a very strong Ystrad side.
The boys started with a real bang and raced into a 14-0 lead thanks to tries by Fred White and Scott Malone. But gradually Ystrad got back into the game largely down their driving line-out, but we still went in at half time 14-12 to the good.
The second half however belonged to the away team as influential players Scott Malone and Keegan Rees came off depleting our side even further, and we ended up with 38 14 loss that sees us exit the Taff Rhondda cup.
The positives to come out of the afternoon were the first year youth players that stepped in to this very competitive fixture and performed with great effort. The skills they showed will stand them in good stead over the coming youth seasons and their physicality will get better with their natural growth.

Seconds Backs do the Damage  - 06/03/2010 - Tondu (Enoch Lewis Cup SF)

ENOCH LEWIS MID GLAM CUP SEMIFINAL
LLANHARAN SECONDS 20 TONDU 17
A kick from outside half Lloyd Thomas ten minutes from time was enough to send Llanharan Seconds through to the final of the Enoch Lewis Mid Glam cup where they will meet Bridgend Athletic.
It was appropriate that the outside half should have supplied the coup de grace as his scything runs had caused problems for Tondu all afternoon.
In fact, despite the visitors’ clear strength up front, it was always Llanharan’s back play that threatened to produce results.
They built up a 17-7 half time lead, Carl Jenkins and Gareth Jones finishing off good attacks, Thomas converting both and adding a penalty.
Tondu’s forward power was illustrated as they won a penalty try on the stroke of half time, and they set up a thrilling finale as their pack did damage again, this time with a push over try, the conversion and then a drop goal levelling the scores until Thomas put his team in line for a double, having already won the league title.
Carl Leather was chosen as Man of the Match, his ability to dispossess the opposition a vital factor preventing them gaining the ascendancy.

These are the 3 most recent match reports posted. Older reports are in the archive