Fixture

It can`t always be bad luck and it can`t always be the referee but Beddau once again came second despite having done enough to have won many games.  No, it was Tata who ruined the party.

The referee, Richard Brace of Maesteg, felt the pitch was in good enough nick to start and his judgement was vindicated as both sides fought it out toe to toe on a glue-pot that lasted the distance.

Hywel Chatham had given Beddau the lead early on when Tata were offside and Chatham was at the heart of a move that took the ball to either side of the Tata defence before a long pass went astray.  It became Tata`s turn to attack and they probed through scrum half Geraint Watkin for openings that proffered briefly before Beddau`s solid defending closed them down.

Eventually a kick aimed for winger Richard Carter and overlapping full back Simon Evans was brilliantly picked up from his toe nails by Marcus Jones.  The flanker turned winger had a little more than 70 metres to travel but has the pace and strength to do so.  Hywel Chatham converted.

Half time had been reached at 10-0 and Beddau took up the cudgels in the second period too.  Hywel Chatham struck an upright with a penalty for lying on after Beddau, playing an advantage, had just failed in the corner when Joe Casella`s weaving run fell to a combination of mud and an ankle tap.

Beddau lost impressive young Number 8 Rhys Owen to a recurring ankle injury and were penalised at the following scrum, a phase they had controlled until then.  The kick gave Tata a lineout and a following drive.  That was defended at the cost of a scrum and though Beddau got the nudge the ball came out on the Tata side of the disruption and was picked up by a grey figure who scored.  The angled conversion was well struck by Callum Bricknell.

With time ebbing Tata were awarded a scrum penalty and nudged to touch to effect a pushover that involved almost the entire side.  The mud covered shirts and number of options made it impossible to identify the scorer but the try was again converted by Bricknell leaving Beddau on the wrong end of a 14-10 scoreline.

So much is now knitting together again in an injury disrupted season and Beddau should take heart from this performance as Tata`s win lifts them to second in the table.  A worry was that Lloyd Evans, an inspiring captain, had to leave in the closing moments having popped a rib and exacerbated a long running shoulder injury.  On the plus side Ethan Coombes is rapidly regaining the time lost at hooker where Tom Geere too has been signed off the sick list.  Tries have dried up but one failed pass and one loss of footing apart at least two more would have arrived here and surely they cannot be far away.