Rugby

ALTHOUGH these are early days in the Championship a 36-10 defeat at Glynneath led to Newcastle Emlyn flirting with the relegation zone and the Red and Whites will be anxious not to slip up at home against lowly Dunvant this Saturday.

In recent times the Teifisiders have gained a bit of a reputation for running rugby but were forced to play second fiddle at Abernant Park as the homesters held sway for most of the game and with a little more rub of the green could have won by a wider margin.

To be fair to the Red and Whites they launched a number of promising attacks but these were repelled by first-rate Glynneath tackling.

Influential outside half Corey Jenkins opened the scoring for Glynneath when cutting through the defence like a knife through butter and shortly afterwards winger Aled Evans kicked ahead and won the race for a touchdown out wide for fly-half Jenkins to convert from the touchline.

Scrum-half Ben Jones raced away to set up a great try for outstanding No. 8 Stuart Leich who sprinted 30 metres for a superb score.

During the second half a high level of handling culminated in centre Jordan Griffiths going in for a try out wide, replacement prop Dai Jones

powered over to score and Ben Jones also got in on the act.

Backrower Joel James crashed over for an Emlyn score converted by Daniel Davies in the dying seconds but it was a case of too little and too late.

A highly entertaining spectacle with an abundance of open rugby and a total of 74 points kept supporters in high spirits at King George V Playing Field where Cardigan reached round two of the National Bowl with a 45-29 win over Laugharne.

It was 10-10 after the opening 40 minutes when Cardigan sprang tries through winger Rhydian Jenkins and outside half Llyr Jones, while for the visitors flanker Mickey Williams went over for a try converted by Tom Jameson and Owen Thomas dropped a goal.

After the interval Cardigan notched further tries through Sion Hughes, scrum-half Luke Rogers (2), John Lumb and Kieran Hurley with the remainder of the points coming from successful kicks by Rogers.

For Laugharne there was a second try for backrower Williams and one apiece for prop Rhys Thomas and lock Gary Jones.