Fixture

Bridgend Sports Club 21 Birchgrove 31

Birchgrove came to the Banstand Field on Saturday knowing a win would secure them promotion as league leaders. From the kick off it looked as if the Sports were determined to spoil the party and should have scored from their first attack. Good running by the threequarters and very energetic pick and drive by the forwards saw them just a yard short of the line. Birchgrove survived this and cleared their line. It was 15 minutes before they had a chance with a penalty which was struck well by the the classy right wing Matthew Edwards but just failed. 

The next chance came to the Sports after Josh Thomas stole a Birchgrove line ball, stepped though their line with ease and offloaded to fellow second row Matthew Donnolly who made yards and the a series of drives by Punter and Willson forced Birchgrove into handling on the floor and Darren Lewis put the home side ahead with a fine kick. 

From the re-start the Sports ran well into the Birchgrove half with quick ball from Darren Lewis to Ken Morris who linked with the blind side winger, Richie Byrne who had to work hard to score in the corner, Lewis just missing with the kick. With 30 mintues gone Birchgrove attacked down the right wing and the Sports winger Jamie Williams was pulled in to defend which allowed just enough room for Edwards to score in the corner, his kick was strong but just failed. 

Almost immediately when the Sports were forced to clear their line, Birchgrove launched a fine attack and their centre Jordon Williams looped well to score halfway out this time Edwards easily added the points making the half time score 8-12. 
For twenty minutes of the second half the pressure was all from the Sports, unfortunately poor, quite sloppy handling let them down and gave possession to the visitors. In a desperate attempt to stop this barrage of Sports attack Birchgrove had their second row yellow carded which put more pressure on their pack which was alredy being well beaten in the tight by the Sports. From this penalty Darren Lewis reduced the lead to 11-12. 

Donnolly then took another Birchgrove ball and the threes opened it to left winger Jamie Williams who ran well before making a good switch to his opposite wing Byrne who broke clean through the whole defence. With one man to beat he unselfishly offloaded to Ryan Wallis who just failed to take a try scoring pass. This was a big shame as Wallis had backed up so well and was having one of his best games of the season at hooker. 

Following some more shocking handling by the Sports they were lucky to get pulled back for earlier infringement and given an easy penalty for Lewis to put the Sports in the lead 14-12. The remaining 12 minutes of the match were quite hectic as firstly a Birchgrove chip ahead down the left wing and good following up by Lee Jones allowed him to just touch down after a gallant tackle by Lewis. The kick failed. Score 14-17. The best Birchgrove move of the match followed as they looked to open the ball wide and some neat threequarter handling helped Tom Dowling over for a try that Edwards showed his class again, in kicking. 

Now with the score 14-24 but against the second half run of play both sides, to their credit wanted to run everything. With even the crowd breathless Richie Byrne on the right wing chiped over his opposite number, the ball bobbled about and fell well for him, again he had some work to do but was solid in scoring his second try. Lewis quickly dropped goal as time is almost out with the score 21-24. 

The final say went to the resourceful visitors, Birchgrove who again created a minimal overlap for Matthew Edwards on the left wing, he then rounded the defence and ended the game by kicking his own try, taking his tally to 16 of the 31 points that give Birchgrove a deserved 21-31 win and promotion. 

Next week the sports play Glais which once more promises to be a cracking game at the Bandstand field. KO 2.30 and the final game of the season.