KONICA MINOLTA CUP ROUND UP
Last season’s Worthington Welsh District Cup finalists stayed on the road to the Millennium Stadium thanks to home wins over west Wales sides Felinfoel and Haverfordwest. Trefil found themselves 13 points down in the opening 10 minutes against Division 2 West side Felinfoel. They worked their way back to within a point at the interval and then dominated the second half. In the end the Welsh Districts Cup holders were worthy winners on a count of four tries to one with Nathan Ecclestone, David Kearney, Matthew Jones and Ioan Lane crossing.
The fight back at Glyncoch, where Treorchy had been beaten in the preliminary round, was not quite as dramatic, but Division 3 West club Haverfordwest found themselves on the end of a 21-16 defeat having led 7-6 at half-time. Even with inspirational skipper Gerwyn Williams sitting on the sidelines with ankle ligament damage, Glyncoch had too much passion for their visitors to cope with and more than justified their appearance in the second round draw this week.
“We made five changes from the side that beat Treorchy and still came out on top. That shows the strength in depth at our club,” said Williams. “We want to progress as far as we can in this competition and we?d love a couple of Division 5 sides in the next few rounds. Then the dream would be to play against Pontypridd.”
Young prop Jason Davies was the toast of the clubhouse for his late try that helped top secure another famous victory. That score came after No 8 Steve Way crossed earlier in the half to add to two penalties from Dean Young and a conversion and penalty from lee Goddard.
Llantwit Major stripped Abercarn of their unbeaten record this season with a 33-30 home win that included tries from David Sinclair, Wes Pooley, Barry Griffiths and Liam Thomas and 13 points from the boot of former Wales rugby league international Matthew Silva.
Another ex-international, former Newbridge and Wales hooker Ken Waters, was also in on the scoring action as he crossed for one of Abergavenny?s 10 tries in their 64-0 home win over Pontarddulais.
Abergavenny were 40 points ahead at half-time and had seven conversions to add to their try tally from the boot of Carl Walbyoff.
Among the top scorers on the day were Abercynon, who blasted Newtown with 14 tries in a 96-5 home win. Lyndon Lewis scored a hat-trick of tries and Matthew Turner scored 31 points with 13 conversions and a try.
But the honour of the highest score of the round fell to Division 2 West side Seven Sisters who reached the century at Division 5 West club St Clears. There were 18 tries for the visitors in their 102-0 victory with John Littlewood, Dafydd Francis and Andrew Thomas grabbing hat-tricks.
Bridgend Sports proved too strong for another of the Welsh Districts sides, Caerleon. They scored four tries, one from skipper and No 8 Mark Jehu, in a 20-3 home win, while Division 3 South-West team Tondu were 50-19 victors at the home of another Districts team, Caerau (Ely).
There was also a home defeat for a third Welsh Districts team, Markham, who fell to an injury time penalty against Division 3 West club Amman United, 31-28. With the scores tied at 28-28, Markham thought they would go through on try count, 4-3, before that last gaps kick denied them their glory.
Cardiff HSOB had 16 points from outside half Richard Marshall to thank for their 36-24 win over Baglan, while Pontypool United?s No 10 Darren Pearce scored 18 points in his side?s 23-0 win at Crumlin.
Nant Conwy led six north Wales teams through to the second round with their 32-0 home win over Maesteg Celtic. Victory maintained Nant’s unbeaten record this season and their five tries to nil triumph over the Division 2 West team saw Adam Russel and Marc Jones cross for two tries each in a game in which Celtic were reduced to 12 men at one stage.
Also through from the north are Bethesda, 24-5 home victors over Monmouth, Llandudno, who had two tries from Gareth Coy in their 24-8 win at Blaenavon, Denbigh, who beat Wrexham 42-15 and Llanidloes, who overpowered St Joseph’s 46-3.
But Llangefni’s unbeaten record this season came to a halt when they were beaten 21-14 at home by Division 2 East outfit Newport Saracens. Matthew Evans and David Bishop scored tries for the Sarries.
