Llandrindod Wells 24 Canon 31

IF ever there was a David and Goliath match, this was it.

David, in the form of a resurgent Llandrindod took on Goliath, in other words the Cardiff based team, Canton, who until this weekend were sitting third in the League.

The disparity in the size and evident maturity of the two teams was quite striking, but this did not concern Llandrindod and both teams, by common consent after the game, including that of the experienced referee, produced a cracking game of rugby, with Canton narrowly edging the result by a mere seven points.

Llandrindod kicked off deep in to the Canton half, and their forwards attacked the Canton line for some minutes, before the Cardiff side broke free and were awarded a penalty try, converted, after laying siege to Llandrindod’s line for some time.

Canton scored again shortly afterwards when their left wing ran out of defence and, in one of the more scorching runs seen on this ground, raced some 90 metres to touch down for the second of Canton’s tries. Unconverted.

Twelve points down in only the first fifteen minutes woke the home side in to life and a 20 metre driving maul, one of Llandrindod’s specialities, pushed Canton right back to their line enabling the Llandrindod scrum half Dale Wilson to touch down after Llandrindod won an ensuing scrum. Jac Holden converting.

This reduced the deficit somewhat, and the scores were levelled to 12 points apiece when Llandrindod prop Aled Price powered his way over for an unconverted try before the referee blew for half time, and Llandrindod supporters began to wonder if they could actually win this game and upset the form book.

After the restart, Canton came back hard at their hosts but were soon deep in defence and close to their line, with honours being even for the first ten minutes until, eventually, they managed to break through the Llandrindod defence to score a converted try.

A series of mauls after the restart, with Llandrindod skipper and number eight Geraint Evans making a thorough nuisance of himself in the loose, led to an unconverted try by Evans to reduce the deficit to just two points.

Not to be outdone, Canton scored a try, converted, of their own followed almost immediately with an unconverted try to bring the game beyond Llandrindod’s reach at 17-31. Still Llandrindod never gave up and Dan Oakley, after a scything run, touched down to reduce the deficit to only a converted try, and then the inevitable final whistle.

This week, Llandrindod travel to Tylorstown in the league.