National League Division Three (West): Newcastle Emlyn 3 points Cardigan 18 points
Cardigan made the short journey to Newcastle Emlyn and returned with the precious league points as reward for a good all-round team display where their forwards battled hard to gain the clear edge and their backs tackled ferociously to make sure that the danger posed by home full back Ifan Jones and his three-quarters was snuffed out before a big crowd.
Yet it was Emlyn who started well with a penalty for offside from outside half Gareth Jones as early as the third minute, but then Cardigan responded seven minutes later with a penalty by their pivot Aled Thomas after Emlyn were judged to be guilty of lying on the ball.
Cardigan centres Barry John and Dylan Rees joined full back Eurig Lloyd in some useful defensive work and then John claimed the first try of the game as outside half Thomas made a neat half break and found John at his shoulder, the strong centre making it to the line for Thomas to convert.
After a tight first half where Dyfed James and Dylan Evans tried hard to fire up the home side, Emlyn gifted Cardigan an early try after the break when their kick-off failed to 10 metres and from this a series of drives set the platform for cheeky new scrum half Gareth Mason to send hooker Aled Harries away on the blind side before Alun Williams dashed over in the corner.
Thomas was unable to convert but after 30 minutes of unrelenting play kicked a penalty that proved to be the final score. It gave Cardigan a morale-boosting win over their old rivals - but coaches Stan Liptrot, Derek Burton and Eifion Collins were quick to stress to the players afterwards that this was just one good result in a long and hard season.
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