Free Press Sport
Cwmbran miss out on golden chance of away win
2:35pm Wednesday 15th February 2012
Cwmbran 19 Machen 21 A golden opportunity of an away win was lost by visitors Cwmbran when a catalogue of incidents and errors contributed to this defeat, with both sides scoring three tries each.
Cwmbran captain Gareth Roberts opened the crows account cutting a fine angle to break a strong Machen defence to score a try.
Openside Mike Lang added to this moments later intercepting on the halfway line to score a try which Chris Wannell converted.
Leading 12 nil, Cwmbran looked superior in ball winning, carrying and crossing gain lines behind. Machen, on the other hand, had little ball to play with at this point and when they did run with the ball it was at pace down both flanks.
A fifty metre try by their right wing was converted and the gap now was only five points leading up to the interval.
Cwmbran right wing, Martin Ellis, had the injustice of having 'tries' disallowed either side of halftime, with both linesman contributing to the cancelled scores by raising flags.
Second half Machen's pacey wing ran in another long range converted try to claim a two point lead.
Stirred into life the visiting pack started gaining ascendancy in the set pieces with the scrums going particularly well.
It wasn't long before passive scrums were forced on Cwmbran by Machen's front rowers being replaced. Soon after a Cwmbran attack from deep broke down when a poor pass was intercepted and another converted try resulted.
There was now a nine point cushion and Cwmbran 'threw the kitchen sink' at Machen.
An easy penalty miss didn't help their cause, but following a series of scrums and mauls, Gareth Roberts scored an excellent try which Ashley Goode converted.
Further attempts came to nothing and Cwmbran had to settle for a bonus point defeat.
Worthy of special mention were Cooke, Edwards, Peart and Lang in the pack, with Roberts, Thomas, Vann and Ellis looking dangerous when they had quick ball.
Cwmbran Athletic also came off second best losing 14-27 at home to Caldicot.