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                   NANTGAREDIG    51     LLANDYBIE  12

Llandybie travelled to wet and windy Nantgaredig on Saturday. The early pressure came from the visitors in the first ten minutes but they could not get over the whitewash.                  The hosts weathered the storm and with the use of the gale force wind kept moving forward. Nant gained a penalty for offside converted by Meirion Davies. The referee set out his stall with two yellow cards for a minor dustup. Poor tackling by Llandybie allowed Nant to cross the whitewash with a try by Bleddyn Lewis converted by Davies. A massive kick into the visitors twenty two was returned with a fine touch finder from wing Alex Wigley. From the lineout Llandybie lost prop Keenan Jones with damaged ligaments replaced by Matthew Meredith. Nant missed a penalty but a good cross field move saw Rhys Shivoni cross converted by Davies. Llandybie were falling off tackles which is most unusual for them and Nant scored again with a try down the right. Llandybie gathered themselves and put pressure on the home line with good carries by Merlyn McClelland, Lyndon Davies, Alex Comey and centre Chris Powell but the hosts held out to lead 22 – 0 at half time.

The Nant back line was excellent coming at pace and running good angles, often finding the smallest gaps and the scramble defence with Llandybie was hard worked to cope.The visitors defensive line was too slow coming up giving Nant too much time and space. Nant scored three quick tries to lead 39 -0 but at last the visitors started to put some moves together. From good interplay Lyndon Davies scored a try after good work by Nathaniel Butler. Another cross field move almost put hard working centre Rhys Evans through a gap but the ball was recycled and Llandybie brought Dafydd Nicholas into the line and with Wigley outside him held on to the ball and the try was almost lost. The back row was on hand and recycled to Davies who crashed over to score converted by Lee Davies. Llandybie lost captain Rhydian Jones with a rib injury after a heavy tackle with the opponent using no arms. Lyndon Davies was causing Nant some headaches with his barnstorming runs. With the game gone  the visitors rang the changes to give their squad a run out but the hosts  scored two late tries to run out 51 – 12 winners. A very disappointing performance from Llandybie, who were a bit shellshocked, against a very good Nant team with excellent backs, the best Llandybie have played against . So plenty for the visitors to work at in training next week. I think the tackle bags will be coming out as they were unusually poor in this area. This was a wake up call for Llandybie  who need to bounce back in their next match. They remain fifth in the league.