Fixture

Winter certainly visited Beddau on Tuesday evening and so, too, did Porth Harlequins.  The Rhondda side, now under the guidance of Robert Downes a former captain and club favourite at the Green and Golds and Ben Daniels who earned a great deal of respect as Beddau`s backs coach, are not pulling up trees in the league, but could be counted on to be organised and combative, and so it proved.

Beddau were able to welcome back long term injury absentee Josh Thomas and the recently unavailable Rhys Owens and Carl Lewis while, captain for the night, Sam Tiley continues regaining his form and fitness.  In addition there were debuts for outside half Morgan Davies and left wing Brendon Clarke with Ollie Thomas and Gareth Paul entering from the bench to make their first senior appearances.

Playing towards the Old Clinic end of the ground Beddau were in dominant mood early on.  Porth were unflustered, however, and despite living off scraps were not afraid to show glimpses of enterprise with a hard-working pack holding the fort allowing the half backs to show a range of skills.

A penalty in open play gave Beddau some headway and when Porth had encroached on the Carl Lewis tap and go the scrum half went again and his miss pass went to speedy winger James Davies for a fine finish.

Josh Thomas was in the action with a strong turnover.  Full back James Grainger stormed into the line and his excellent carry ended with an offload to the supporting Sam Edwards for a try that Callum Wheeler again converted.

If this should have opened the floodgates nobody told Porth and a period of ‘in your face’ defending set up some escape routes which were managed well enough to allow them to ply the touchline.  The Porth forwards kept the ball with a series of mauls that ended with a converted try at the posts to make it 14-7.

The half was drawing to an end with Beddau still unable to shake off doughty opponents.  A close range lineout was won by Sam Tiley but, rather than support the jumper in the drive, Beddau`s tight forwards fanned in field.  It paid off.  A series of offloads eventually brought the backs on board and debutant left wing Brendon Clarke was on the end of the move for a try that full back James Grainger goaled from the touchline.  The half ended at 21-7 and with Beddau right wing James Davies suffering a painful twist to the ankle.

Davies gave way to Gareth “Usain” Hopkins while Ross Barnes replaced Josh Thomas.  Tight head Luke Jones had been out for a while with a hamstring injury and he too was removed from the fray allowing Lloyd James to join fellow loose head Mason Morgan in the front row.  Some exhilarating play involving centres Callum Wheeler and Sam Edwards, with one providing the guile and the other the strength provided an outside chance for winger Clarke. His pace and tackle-breaking strength made it a better than outside chance as he touched down at the flag for an unconverted score.

An exciting run along the right from Gareth Hopkins ended with a stumble and an offload picked off by Porth and a long, angled kick set up the forwards for some driving play in the Beddau 22.  When the ball emerged a short, sharp pass found enough space for a deserved try in the corner.  It was not converted but at 26-12 Beddau were still not able to breathe easily.  Still the changes were made with Tom Marley, himself only just on the recovery from injury path, replacing Carl Lewis.  Matthew Howells had already taken over from Sol Khan at hooker.  Suddenly, from about nowhere, a Gareth Hopkins incursion from the right saw, with Callum Wheeler`s help, the ball find Brendon Clarke for the winger to burn the defence for a try at the posts which James Grainger converted.  Soon Grainger too left the field nursing a knee and was replaced by Ollie Thomas.  Tom Marley could have stamped his name on proceedings when Callum Wheeler engineered a gap in midfield.  The powerful scrum half saw that his options basically involved haring off to an individual score and although the spirit was willing the weeks in recovering from a leg injury took a little too much out of the tank and he was overhauled short of the line.

Beddau will be happy that a difficult obstacle was safely cleared while Porth Harlequins will also have taken a great deal from a game to which they had fully contributed.