Llantwit Fardre away 3rd March 07
Llantwit Fardre 11 Croesyceiliog 10
With Llantwit Fardre 4th from bottom i.e. the first position of safety above the relegation zone, this was a game Croesy had to win to give themselves a reasonable chance of staying up. And as it turned out it was a game they could and should have won.
There was a first XV debut on the left wing for 18 year old youth team centre Gareth Bates and he did enough to show he will be an asset to the club in the coming years with some useful runs and solid defence.
This was a scrappy game with the only score of the first half being a penalty for the home side. Croesy eventually opened their account 2 minutes into the second half when Matthew Entwistle went over unopposed under the posts after a miss move from a scrum on the right. Entwistle added the conversion to give Croesy a 7-3 lead. The lead changed hands again midway through the half when Llantwit scored a try wide out from a driving maul.
Entwistle then narrowly missed with 2 long range penalties including one which hit the post before he made it 3rd time lucky with a 50 yarder to retake the lead with just 5 minutes left to go.
When Llantwit failed to put the restart 10 metres and gave control back to Croesy it seemed all they had to do was peg the home side back in their 22 and run down the clock for the win. But the attempted kick for the corner went over the dead ball line instead. From the resultant scrum on Croesy's 10 meter line the hosts drove up field and eventually won a simple penalty in front of the posts to snatch the win in the last minute.
Croesy's side:
1. Marc Watkins; 2. Simon Jones; 3. Justin Smith; 4. Richard Gibbins; 5. Jim Sargeant; (Tom Price 40 mins) 6. Chris Williams (Paul Hicks 50 mins) ; 7. Gavin Howells (Jake Nash 60 mins) ; 8. Tim Hanks; 9. Ritchie Williams; 10. Phil Daunter; 11. Gareth Bates; 12. Matthew Entwistle; 13. Shane Williams; 14. Gavin Holmes; 15. David Davies.
Unused sub: Anthony Gardner.
Scorer: Matthew Entwistle: try, con, pen.