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Page 1 of 2 A convincing win for a young Pontypridd side against a well drilled Llanharan in a match that saw son versus father...
There was a familiarity amongst the coaches of both sides that saw an interesting rivalry between Llanharan coach Dennis John and his son the Pontypridd backs coach Paul John... MATCH REPORT FROM PONTYPRIDD: A slow start saw possession move back and forth between the teams, with little real impetus on either part. Llanharan broke the stalemate on the quarter hour mark with a penalty, and this seemed to be the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back, as Ponty immediately sprung to the attack. Credit to Llanharan, they seemed solid even towards the end of the first half, where Ponty led narrowly by 16-9, lock Damien Welch and wing, Gareth John particularly impressive. The second half was more the Ponty the supporters have come to think of, as a srtong start led to 31 unanswered points, and some great performances by many trialists. Food for thought for both Simon King and Paul John FROM: www.ponty.net MATCH REPORT FROM LLANHARAN: Llanharan 9 Pontypridd 47
Llanharan put up stern opposition to produce a close battle in the first half of this pre-season friendly, but Pontypridd capitalised on every opportunity to run up a big score in a second period in which both sides made numerous changes.
As the Dairymen discovered in their one year’s flirtation with the Premier Division two seasons ago, you get punished for lapses at the higher level and so it proved.
In centre Dafydd Lockyear Ponty had the type of player to take full advantage of any opening and the big mid filed man ran in a hat trick of tries, even adding a conversion of his third effort.
But in the opening forty minutes Llanharan will have taken encouragement from a strong performance, although they were hardly given a scoring chance playing up the slope.
Good defensive work often characterised their play, the likes of Eliot Frewen, Ross Pearce and Gary Williams showing up well, while the front row of Adrian Ford, Owain Williams and Gareth Alexander was a powerful unit also able to contribute around the field.
It was just 19- 9 at the turn around with outside half Ross Pearce slotting home three penalties for the home side.
But the visitors got three tries on the board, the first two converted by Jason Pocock.
A long sequence of penalties saw Lockyear burst over the line from a line out, second row Damien Welsh crashed through for another from short range after Llanharan lost possession in opposition territory, and then Darren Jones went over on the right after Frewen made a brave but outnumbered attempt to run the ball up field.
As a meaningful contest between two teams the second half was devalued by the multiple changes that had supporters often puzzling at the identities of their own players.
The coaches would have been making individual evaluations and looking at combinations, but for a decent sized crowd the game was over as a contest and Ponty’s back up resources were clearly superior.
Gareth Edwards’ men battled gamely though, especially when Alexander was yellow carded in the 45th minute, but they conceded four more tries through a brace each from Lockyear and Gareth John, Pocock (2), Lockyear and Paul Mathews supplying conversions.
With more players to come into the squad Simon King and Paul John agreed that it had been a useful workout in preparation for the league opener at home to Llandovery on Saturday.
While for Llanharan, they will be hoping to secure the services of Alexander and Steffan Jones before their trip to Uwic, having seen their prominent role in a strong first half pack, but Alyn Lake’s shoulder problem could leave them short of options at scrum half.
Starting line ups.
Llanharan: M.Keats, G.Williams, N.Morgan, G.Dyer, E.Frewen, Ross Pearce, G.Jones, A.Ford, O.Williams, G.Alexander, S.Wahdan, G.Edwards (Capt), S.Jones, Rhys Pearce, N.Allen.
Pontypridd: N.Trowbridge, J.Walder, P.Mathews, D.Lockyear, D.Hitchins, J.Pocock, G.Jones, J.Jones, L.Davies, H.Stoddart, C.Dicomodis, D.Welsh, J.Banfield, N.Harford, D.McIntosh (Capt)
FROM: www.llanharanrfc.org.uk
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