Pembroke 38 Teirw Crymych 24
Admiral National League 4 West A
PEMBROKE RFC’s first XV entertained Teirw Crymych last Saturday in what turned out to be a very exciting, entertaining spectacle for all who attended.
The game seesawed for the first 15 minutes, with both sides testing each other but failing to penetrate determined defences.
The home pack had established dominance at the set piece and this continued throughout the match, providing a solid platform.
Pembroke opened the scoring with a Sherratt penalty and the visitors responding in kind minutes later.
The home side’s forwards and backs then combined well, producing some sweeping moves that involved multiple offloads, which brought them three unanswered tries from backs Lewis Davies, Darcy Langston and Rhys Johns to give them a clear lead of 20-3 at the break.
The third quarter saw the home side continue in the same vein with a Sherratt penalty and a second Davies try after another sweeping move involving many hands.
Pembroke then lost Sherratt to a yellow card and seemed to relax too much; the visitors rallied over the next 20 minutes, with their forwards and backs combining very well to create multi-phase attacks, which kept the home side under constant pressure and brought them three converted tries to narrow the gap to six points.
The last 10 minutes was a nervy period for the home side, who were forced to defend resolutely.
However, they did manage to break out on two occasions, which brought them another Sherratt penalty and in the dying seconds, following another solid scrum deep in the visitor’s twenty two, a blind side try in the corner for Langston to cement their win by 38-24.
This was Pembroke’s fourth consecutive League win and rewards their hard work with a place in the upper half of the table, nine points behind leaders Neyland and two adrift of Narberth Athletic in second place.
The Panthers made the long journey last Sunday to play Abergele in the first round of the WRU National Bowl.
Their form to date had been good and having beaten Wrexham away last season the squad were confident they could repeat this success on the road.
And that’s the way it turned out with the Panthers proving too strong for the home side, dominating up front and they forged a 0-17 half time lead through some excellent phases of play.
Abergele brought on lots of second half substitutes to revitalize their effort, but the visitors maintained their hold on the game and scored two more tries, eventually winning by 5-27 (try scorers for Panthers were, Chloe McAdam x2, Issy Dufresnoy, Megan Cole and Leah Phillips).
The Youth were not in action at the weekend, but lots of the Junior section were playing with mixed results.
Dafydd Killian played again at scrum half for Pembs Schools U16s away against Newport Schools, he played very well again and his squad won impressively by 7-25.
Upcoming fixtures include; First XV St Davids away this Saturday in the second leg for the Willington Slate, then Quins home on Dec 14, whilst the Youth will play Crymych at home.
The club is hoping to play the annual Exiles match on Boxing day. Tickets for the New Years Eve Party are on sale with the steward.