Pyle 19Sports 17

The conditions dictated so much of this game at the Brynglas field in Pyle. The home side elected to play with the slope but against the driving wind and rain in the first half, and put a lot of early pressure which the Sports defended well. After only 8 minutes, the game was suspended for 10 mins allowing the weather to ease somewhat.
When the Sports made a rare visit to the Pyle half, it was Nathan Townley who gave them the lead with a penalty following an offside infringement. Both sides were making many handling errors due to the atrocious weather conditions and there were msny scrums throughout the whole match.

It was really a 'hard day at the office' for both sets of forwards. Some good short passing from the Pyle threes saw good support from captain Barry Grabham who slid over the line from 10 yrds out. In the conditions, the kick would have been a miracle had it gone over. It didn't, 5-3 scoreline. The Sports continued to try and play open rugby and finally were rewarded with a fine try by winger Steve Hearne. Townley converted a difficult kick form wide out.
Pyle were playing the home slope well but it looked as if the Sports would have the lead for the 2nd half. Then on the stroke of half-time, the Sports centres missed two tackles allowing outside-half Gareth Lewis to score under the posts. A try that he converted to make it 12-10 to the home side at the break.

Early Sports pressure at the start of the half was not converted into points and the home side were playing the conditions better. Again, poor tackling from the Sports allowed Cliff Ricketts to dive through the defence to score and Lewis made it 19-10.
The Sports never stopped driving in the forwards, although it must be said the commitment from some of the threes was pathetic and they were not playing the conditions at all. With 10 minutes remaining, the Sports forwards drove down the hill and a great run from Jamie Lorrimer ended in a try that Townley converted to make it a very tense last 5 minutes as the Sports narrowed it to 19-17.