By Zippy
February 5 2007

A review of the action in the Principality Welsh Premiership from Saturday 3rd February. Bridgend Ravens went down to Aberavon at the Brewery Field. For details read on.

Bridgend 16 Aberavon 24

The Western Mail

ABERAVON gained their third away win and second double of the season in defeating a strangely lethargic Bridgend side.

It was only in second-half injury time that the Ravens really threatened and that was largely because of youngster Rhys Webb, who had come on as a replacement.

Aberavon picked up three first-half injuries, losing prop Andrew Edwards (ribs) early on and Jamie Davies retired with a blow to the head. It even continued in the second half as replacement Ceri Jones was led off and No 8 Robbie Morgan played the last quarter limping badly.

Bridgend lost centre Leighton Thomas with a hand injury and veteran fly-half Paul Williams limped along gamely, but the Aberavon pack simply wanted this one more than the home side.

It was a third win with a draw in four matches for former Wales hooker Garin Jenkins as emergency coach and he was absolutely delighted with the way his side performed.

He said, "We were splendid with the work-rate great and we are setting targets that the players are reaching as we aim to climb up this league.

"I thought flanker Darryl Thomas was outstanding and he improves with every game. And young Chris Morgan from the Ospreys Inder-20s in his first appearance for the club showed no nerves and gave a tremendous display."

Bridgend coach Chris Stephens was understandably shattered, saying, "We have injuries and did not play well. We also did not have the rub of the green, but, to be honest, we did compete at the line-out in particular. We just never seemed to get going.

"Fly-half Matthew Jones will join us from the Ospreys when he is fit in about four weeks time and we are struggling in that position, but our play has not been consistent this season."

After missing two relatively easy penalty shots and two try chances, Aberavon conceded six points to the boot of full-back Gareth David, but looked the keener outfit and it was no surprise when Robbie Morgan forced his way over several tacklers to score.

Jamie Davies added a conversion and penalty and David a third goal to make it 10-9 at the break with Davies' replacement Gareth Knox adding a further penalty.

It was Aberavon all the way with their pack, well led by skipper Chris Gittins and he and Andrew Fisher cleaned out Paul Clapham and Tim Evans in the line-out duels.

After Darren Ryan and Richard Carter almost created a score, it was teenage wing James Pike who joined a forward drive to go over, but Bridgend then had a glimmer of hope as Webb's first touch was a charge-down of a Knox kick and he scored for David to convert.

Again, the relentless Wizards pack drove Andrew Williams and company back and Knox added two close-range goals, the second after full-back Liam Gadd was late-tackled.

Only in the last moments did Webb inspire a Bridgend effort that had the visitors back-pedalling, but, despite that, a try would not come for an out-of-sorts Ravens team.

Bridgend	16 - 24 (9 - 10)	Aberavon
Tries: Webb		Tries: Morgan, Pike
Pens: David 3		Pens: Knox 3, Davies
Cons: David		Cons: Davies

Welsh Premiership table

03 February 2007   Team P W D L F A PTS 1 Ebbw Vale 20 14 2 4 429 364 44 2 Neath 20 12 2 6 538 372 38 3 Pontypridd 19 12 1 6 397 378 37 4 Newport 18 11 2 5 448 307 35 5 Llanelli 19 10 2 7 479 371 32 6 Cardiff 20 10 1 9 474 416 31 7 Aberavon 17 9 2 6 406 376 29 8 Bridgend 20 9 0 11 381 395 27 9 Cross Keys 17 7 2 8 316 329 23 10 Glamorgan Wanderers 20 7 1 12 410 502 22 11 Swansea 20 7 0 13 318 473 21 12 Bedwas 19 6 1 12 293 394 19 13 Maesteg 18 6 0 12 339 389 18 14 Llandovery 19 5 0 14 357 519 15