Ebbw Vale 8 Llandovery 16.

A ROUSING Swalec Cup quarter final at Eugene Cross Park went richly the way of Llandovery who now go forward to meet Pontypridd in the semi final on neutral ground this Saturday

writes Huw S Thomas..

The key to success lay in the performance of the pack and in one area in particular.

Every side in the Premiership has found Ebbw Vale’s relentless driving play at close range line outs almost impossible to defend against but Llandovery coach Euros Evans had made close study of their technique in this area.

Training in mid week prior to the cup tie had been largely devoted to the ways to counter the driven maul and the Drovers pack under hooker Luke Lewis came armed with various ploys and plans to disrupt both line takers and supporting players.

The resolve of the pack was tested early on when a series of five metre line outs had to be defended and although prop Wyn Jones was yellow carded for one offence, the pack- now reinforced by prop Dean Howell - stood up to the pressure.

Ebbw No 8 Ronny Kynes has this season scored a bucketful of tries from the rolling maul but he did not get near the try line as Llandovery were able to push the drive sideways or convert the maul into a static ruck.

Down 6-0 to penalties from fly half Jack Maynard, Vale eventually accepted that the Llandovery defence had the answers at the line out and centre Iain Smerdon kicked a penalty to make it 6-3 at half time.

If the tireless Llandovery pack were undoubtedly the heroes of the day, the backs too showed their superiority in skill and invention by hitting Vale with two tries in the third quarter.

Centre Jacob Cowley finished off a combined move by dummying through before scrum half Rhodri Davies stunned home support into silence with a brilliant pick up on halfway and 50 metre sprint for the line.

The Drovers seemed in control but then copped two yellow cards in a desperate rear action against some furious surges by the Vale pack.

The loss of lock Matthew Harbut for reckless use of the boot and Jones again at a collapsed maul reduced the defence to 13 men but although home skipper and lock Damien Hudd at last got over the Llandovery line it was too late to stop the Llandovery march into the semi final.

The dates are now finalised for Llandovery’s three remaining Premiership games

Wed April 13 Bedwas (a), Tues April 19 Carmarthen Quins (a), Sat April 23 Cardiff (a)

To get to the play offs they need to win all three away games – a tall order but attainable given their current form.