Ebbw Vale 38 Llandovery 29, Super Rygbi Cymru, 28/09/2024

Ebbw Vale secured a superb bonus-point victory over last year's Premiership Champions, Llandovery, in what was the Steelmen's best display of the season to date.

The home side got off to a flyer, clearly rattled by the previous week's defeat at Cardiff. Following an early Drovers penalty, a Vale scrum led to a neat first phase move where Evan Lloyd passed Ethan Phillips into space who broke through the line to cross unhindered, Lloyd converted.

A missed midfield pass by the visitors led to a speedy kick and chase from Ewan Bowden, who skilfully managed the gather to cross near the posts, Lloyd added more extras.

Of course, a side as talented as Llandovery was always going to hit back and they did; an unconverted try from Aaron Warren, and a seven pointer from Taylor Davies where Jack Maynard added the 2 points to go with his earlier success.

The half finished with Ebbw back on top. Rolling maul pressure sucked in defenders and so scrum half Jonathan Evans put the back line on alert and some smart handling saw Bowden add a second. Lloyd converted to make it 22-15 at the interval.

After the restart, Lloyd was able to extend Ebbw's lead with two penalties and were always threatening. A quick tap and go from Evans saw him beat the retreating defence and cross for the bonus point try. Lloyd once again converting.

The Drovers were not done and looked to have secured a losing point with two converted tries in quick succession from Evan Sheldon and Lee Rees to make it 35-29.

The match ended with the home side on top once again and were unlucky not to score a fifth try, but had to settle for another successful Lloyd attempt, adding a further 3 points to make the final score 38-29, with five points for the Steelmen.

Ebbw Vale 34 Aberavon 22, Super Rygbi Cymru, 14/09/2024

Bright September sunshine greeted the brave new world of Welsh semi-professional rugby as Super Cymru Rygbi got under way with this clash between two clubs with proud steel-making traditions.

It was very much a clash of the Ebbw Vale power game against a faster, offloading game from the Wizards of Aberavon.

Ebbw started slowly and quickly found themselves under pressure yielding an early 8-0 deficit. Soon, the home side got its act together, with the classic rolling maul steered over the try line by captain Joe Franchi.

With further attacks, Ebbw were starting to gain the upper hand; powerful centre Ethan Phillips crossed and Evan Lloyd added the extras to make it 12-8. Following scrum pressure, Lloyd added a further 3 points to give the Steelmen of Gwent a 15-8 half time lead.

With 'Avon still down to 14 men at the start of the second half, Ebbw took advantage with Ewan McIntyre adding a third try, converted by Lloyd. The bonus point score followed shortly afterwards with slick back play allowing wing Ryan Gardner to score the home side's 4th try.

At 27-8 the game appeared over, but Ebbw Vale weren't going to have it all their own way though. The spirited Wizards added two quick scores, to give the jitters to the bank faithful. Thankfully, more great handling led to a score from scrum half Jonathan Evans, converted by Lloyd to round off a successful afternoon for Ebbw Vale.

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