Burry Port RFC travelled to third placed Lampeter and came away with a six try win to send a clear message to promotion rivals as they consolidate second place in the highly competitive Division 3 West B. With Lampeter a serious contender for the title, it was a crucial game for Burry Port to come away with a win. It turned out to be a crushing loss for the hosts who fancied themselves to win, however it was the Burry Port defensive effort that broke the spirit of the home team as they tried to exert early pressure only to be met with ferocious tackling from the visitors. Lampeter were encouraged by an early catch and drive from a line out but could not keep the ball and build phases with Rhys Gravell, Iwan Roberts and Lee Williams prominent in defence.
The Blacks were well organised and patient and soon were in possession and through powerful running were creating scoring opportunities on a heavy pitch. An overlap led to captain Andy Francis crossing out wide after 15 minutes. The hosts were playing with the slope and tried to gain territorial advantage but as the first half developed it was clear the Blacks played with tempo and at times the Lampeter defence struggled to cope with the pace of the game. A second try came after good pressure and player coach Gareth Gravell saw a gap and charged over to make it 10-nil to the Blacks at
Half Time.
Playing with the slope in the second half, Burry Port RFC continued their running game and forwards Oliver Dunleavy, Richard Parker and Tom Rees excelled as link players as the game opened up. It wasn’t long before an overlap was worked out wide with strong running centre Declan Knox running an intelligent outside line to slice the cover defence for a try out wide. The crucial 4th try was soon to follow from the restart with good interplay opening up a gap for winger Luke Rudall who did well to touch down as the cover tacklers tried in vain to force him into touch. In fairness to the home team there weren’t many missed tackles and it was a case of Burry Port being clinical and all the tries were scored close to the corner fag, and it was a relief for kicker Ben Williams to slot over a penalty from mid field to make the score 23-nil. With Burry Port playing exciting and entertaining rugby, Lampeter were starting to look ragged and gaps opened up with counter attacks from Adam Rudall gaining ground and eventually leading to Richard Parker scoring under the posts with Williams converting to extend the lead to 30-nil. Powerful winger Tom Bowen concluded the try scoring when he charged over after cutting a good angle with Williams slotting over the extras to make the final score 37-nil.
Coach Gareth Gravell said “ We are hitting good form at the right time and we made a statement here today against serious promotion rivals. There is strength in depth with our squad of home grown players and we were clinical with the ball, but I was especially pleased with our well organised defence and the 'nil' is a massive reward for the boys who never gave up in defence. We have 8 remaining games, six of which are at home at the Memorial Park, I'd like to send a message to our suppporters to come out and cheer us on as it makes a massive difference to the asquad.”
With top placed team Bynea winning at home to Llandeilo, Burry Port RFC remain in second place, 3 points adrift from leaders Bynea but with 2 games in hand. The next home game is mouth watering top-of-the-table clash against Bynea on Saturday 3rd March when a big crowd is expected at the Memorial Park. Well done boys, C'MON THE BLACKS!
