At the first game of the new season, Brecon RFC marked the loss of Brendan Cullinane, one of the club’s most loyal and committed members.

Brendan joined the club as a player almost 50 years ago. During that time, he served as a member of the committee, held the office of chairman for 15 years, and president for a further three. Loyal to the last, he had a major influence on the club and its development, with much of the present-day success being built on the foundations he helped to establish. All four teams and a huge crowd of supporters at Parc de Pugh honoured his memory: “lost but never forgotten.”

For a new-look Brecon 1st XV the season could not have started with a greater challenge. The young squad, led by a new coaching team of Kristian Dacey (head coach), Adam Powell (forwards) and Matthew Trowbridge (backs), contained eleven players new to Brecon senior colours, including three straight out of youth rugby and two others who made their senior debuts only last season. Following a mixed bag of pre-season matches, there was some anxiety among the Brecon supporters in a very large match-day crowd. How would the new side cope with the all-round strength of one of the Premiership’s leading teams? Could they deal with the physicality of the Ponty side, considering that just two weeks ago they had suffered at the hands of newly promoted Beddau? Finally, how would morale be affected should they suffer a heavy loss in this first game of the season?

Many of those questions were answered during the first 50 minutes, where they matched their opponents both on the scoreboard and in general play. At the end of the first half honours were even at 10 points apiece, but in truth Brecon had created the better and greater number of opportunities. Two penalty kicks at goal were narrowly missed and two clear chances to score a try went begging. The first came following a great kick and chase. Ben Griffin, on his first outing after a season’s injury break, was first to the ball and kicked ahead. With just the try line in front of him, a wicked bounce resulted in him failing to gather and score. He soon had a second opportunity after a great Ioan Edwards run and wide pass almost put him away. Brecon also saw two penalty attempts drift just wide of the posts before Pontypridd created their first real opportunity and clinically took their chance. They earned a penalty and kicked to touch in the Brecon 22. They set a maul which Brecon held but were forced to commit players into the contact. When Ponty then moved the ball and ran straight and hard in midfield, more defenders were sucked in and space on the right was created for wing Jude Williams to run in for the try.

Brecon hit back with a great try of their own. Young centre Joel Price made a strong break in midfield and full-back Llewelyn Bowen took a fine catch before linking with captain Jake Newman, who spotted space and put in a clever kick to touch in the Ponty 22. Second row Keiran Parry did an outstanding job in getting through and holding up the ball at the maul, and Brecon won a scrum. Brecon’s front row of Iestyn Phillips, Liam Lewis and Brecon’s man of the match, Chris Phillips, provided a steady platform. Lively scrum-half Geraint Workman picked out wing Ben Griffin as he cut in from his blind side to take the ball on the open wing before feeding Jake Newman. He threw a wide pass to wing Kyran Dillan, who crashed into midfield and provided quick ball which was recycled to Newman, who had looped into space on the wing to run in uncontested. His conversion gave Brecon the lead.

Ponty hit back with their second try. Again, their maul committed the Brecon defence and when they moved the ball wide, full-back Oli Shepherd came into the line and carved through a gap to score. Just before half-time Newman kicked a penalty to level the scores.

For ten minutes at the start of the second half, and playing into a gusty wind, Brecon matched their opponents before Ponty began to make use of their most potent weapon. They put Brecon’s line-out under pressure, won the majority of possession, and penalties followed as Brecon struggled to cope. From those penalties, Ponty kicked for the corners. With Brecon failing to hold their driving maul, the visitors capitalised. Hooker Connah Hughes scored the first of his four tries. His second came after Brecon’s influential second row Chad Thomas was sin-binned for a high tackle. A clearance kick went nowhere and Brecon conceded a second try off a driving maul. A third and fourth followed — each a carbon copy of the one before — and the scores took the game away from the home side. At 34–10 down and with ten minutes to play, Brecon looked in danger of sliding to a heavy defeat.

However, they showed resilience and managed to make a final statement of defiance. Centre Thomas Richards made a couple of outstanding cover tackles and was dangerous with ball in hand. Ioan Edwards showed initiative with a quick tap, and fellow back-row players Matthew Williams and Luke Evans won good ball at the ruck. Pressure mounted on the Ponty defence and they first conceded a yellow card and then a penalty try as they killed the ball virtually on their own line. The response was never enough to affect the result but clearly showed that Brecon, although beaten, were in the arm wrestle and unbowed even at the end.

In the post-match assessment, the coaches were generally positive. They pointed out the massive improvement the squad had made in the two weeks since their first pre-season match at Beddau. There were lessons to be learned: some technical, such as coping with powerful, organised driving mauls, and some mental, where against a side like Pontypridd allowing the intensity to drop even for a second will prove costly. However, on the plus side they matched, and at times bettered, Pontypridd for the first fifty minutes and bounced back to close out the game in positive fashion. The final assessment could read that the team is a work in progress. There are small points that need to be fixed and lessons to be learned from the loss, but as a squad there is much to be pleased about. Next week at Cross Keys will be an opportunity to take another step forward.

The other positive came from the adjacent pitch where the Athletic, in their first Division 5 League match, earned a bonus point in their 34–29 victory over Cardiff Met, one of the fancied sides in that league.