The Sec
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New Tredegar - a hard slog but we got there in the end.In this all important lower reaches battle against New Tredegar at the park, the 'green and whites' stormed into attack straight from the kick-off camping on the opposition line where twice scrum-half Luke Pegler was held up when it seemed as if the home teams account would be opened. At the third attempt maybe naively the same option was chosen again when spreading the ball would probably have paid dividends however on this occasion Abertillery infringed and the visitors duly relieved their lines.
It took fifteen minutes for the game to really open up when Darren Miles made a superb angled break from inside his own half this was taken forward by centre Chris Stevens when he changed the angle of attack and off load to supporting flanker Craig Meredith who sprinted over under the posts, Chris Stevens added the conversion.
The next score came as a shock to the home supporters when in no danger on the halfway line and the Abertillery eight destroying their opponents scrum the ball shot out and the visitors took this opportunity to race away and score an unconverted try wide out.
The visitors tails were now up and they were playing with some confidence however the home team steadied the ship somewhat when Chris Stevens increased their lead with a well struck penalty goal.
Half time approached with the 'green and whites' on the attack but a stubborn New Tredegar defence was holding firm when disaster struck, a loose pass was intercepted and the visitors took full advantage when they sprinted the length of the field to take a half time lead with the resultant converted try.
HT 10 - 12
Things got decidedly worse when a penalty was awarded early in the second half this was promply kicked 'between the sticks' leaving the home team with a five point deficit.
The home crowd were now getting nervous as the team seemed to be taking wrong options, turning down an easy penalty attempt to reduce the margin in favour of kicking to touch only to be penalised did nothing to calm their fears.
Worse still was to happen when on seventeen minutes the New Tredegar loose head prop 'flopped' down over the ruck to conceed a penalty only for this to be reversed when Luke Pegler was deemed to have used his boot illegally, the referee took a dim view of this and after a long discussion showed the young scrum half the red card.
Changes were made by both sides, New Tredegar seemed content to 'soak-up' any Abertillery pressure hoping the extra man would have its anticipated effect. Eighty minutes on the clock came and went but there was plenty of extra time to negotiate.
'The green and whites' were throwing everything into attack now and were camped in the New Tredegar twenty-two when after a number of thwarted attempts at gaining a try, Abertillery created an unstoppable rolling maul which ended with Craig Meredith crashing over under the sticks once again Chris Stevens converted giving the home team the lead.
The restart saw a crunching but illegal tackle by the visitors open-side flanker reduce their numbers with the resultant yellow card. The penalty was driven down the touch line to put Abertillery once again on the attack this time from the line-out Greg Lane galloped away to score another try with Chris Stevens adding the extra two points.
The match was all but over now with the visitors totally shell shocked and the exuberant home crowd ecstatic.
FT 24 - 5
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