After the game was moved from Taffs Well to the artificial pitch at the Vale of Glamorgan Hotel due to adverse weather conditions, Morgannwg deservedly held on for the win despite being pegged back from the 18-0 lead they held at one stage in the first half.
Centre Aled Summerhill crossed twice and James Sheekey, Luke Leddington and replacement Shaun Clark also went over as Morgannwg caused an upset.
The two Taylor’s Morgan and Dimmick, responded for Gwent but it was not enough.
It was a bad start to the game for the defending champions and they never fully recovered. After failing to collect the kick-off, Gwent gave Morgannwg possession inside their 22. From this, Morgannwg won a kickable penalty but instead of opting for the three points, fly-half Tom MacAloon opted to kick touch. And they were rewarded when from the resulting lineout, Sheekey crashed over to give his side an early lead.
MacAloon failed with the touchline conversion but soon kicked two penalties, one a difficult effort from the half-way line, as his side dominated the early stages.
And it soon got better for them when straight from the restart, Summerhill broke through two tackles and finished in the right hand corner. MacAloon added the conversion to put Morgannwg 18-0 up inside 20 minutes.
If it was Morgannwg who started the game quickly, their early lead seemed to shock the defending champions into a response. Gwent Centre Morgan crashed over under the posts to get his side back in it with fly-half Scott Turner adding the simple conversion to make it 18-7.
MacAloon then missed the chance to extend his side’s lead, his penalty attempt striking a post but Gwent were slowly growing into the game after their slow start.
After starting to provide a more constant supply of ball, Gwent’s forwards began to show some of the form that made them last year’s winners. And from a classy kick through by Morgan, Gwent winger Dimmick collected to touch down in the corner and narrow his side’s deficit to six points at the interval.
With the game back in the balance, the second half started scrappily with neither side able to maintain either possession or territory. MacAloon was somewhat surprisingly replaced by Sam Withers at fly-half for Morgannwg but it didn’t matter as from a lineout on the Gwent five metre line, prop Leddington went over after an impressive drive from the Morgannwg forward pack.
Withers showed his worth by adding the difficult conversion and Morgannwg led 25-15 with 10 minutes remaining.
Then in the final 10 minutes, Summerhill made sure of the win with his second try before Clark added gloss to the scoreline. Withers added the extra two points to Summerhill’s score to seal a worthy victory as Morgannwg started the competition with a win.
In the other college games taking place on Wednesday, Coleg Sir Gar started their campaign with a bang as they comfortably beat Bridgend College 45-10.
Scrum-half Gareth Rees got the scoreboard going in the tenth minute and from there on, Sir Gar never looked back. Centres Morgan Griffiths and Craig Woodall added further scores as the home side pulled clear.
Fly-half Jack Maynard added five conversions to a number of second-half scores as Sir Gar registered a comprehensive victory.
Llandovery College registered an even more impressive win, running in 13 tries as they demolished Coleg Sir Benfro 74-10. It was a bad start for the home side and it only got worse as Llandovery, the only independent school in the competition, ran riot.
In the remaining match, a more competitive affair saw Neath Port Talbot College outscore Gower College Swansea by two tries to one in a narrow 12-8 win.
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