On a wet afternoon, punctuated by lightning, there were understandably plenty of mistakes from both sides with a draw probably a fair result.Â
Neath Port Talbot were rewarded for a strong first half with a 7-0 interval lead, hooker Luke Davies crashing over and Dylan Francis converting.
The second half saw the rain lash down but Llandrillo fought back and a try from Tom Williams and Morgan Williams’ conversion saw the two sides share the spoils.
Llandrillo’s slow start to the game had seen them go into the break 7-0 down and they struggled to make an impact early on with Neath Port Talbot well on top.
There were plenty of loose balls and the set piece was a lottery, each side winning a scrum against the head, but the deadlock was broken when Davies crashed through a couple of tackles to move his side into the lead. Francis converted and came close to adding a second Neath Port Talbot try, his clean line break only stopped by a shuddering tackle from Llandrillo full back Morgan Williams.
Despite failing to add to their early try, the home side went into the break ahead as Llandrillo’s errors continued to hinder any way back into the game.
If the first half had been relatively quiet, the second was a different story despite the worsening conditions. Neath Port Talbot started with a bang, Francis orchestrating things from fly half as a second try looked likely.
The score failed to arrive though and after Morgan Williams had missed a difficult long range penalty, Llandrillo responded. Tom Williams was the scorer, the fly half scorching through a gap on his way to the line. Morgan Williams converted and with the wind, rain and even lightning now coming down, it was the north Wales college who were on top.
Josh Leach’s side should really have added a second try but with plenty of space out wide, they chose to continually attack around the fringes of the ruck, a move which backfired as scrum half Cameron Davies was held up over the line.
That was pretty much Llandrillo’s last chance and with just a couple of minutes remaining, they could have lost it. Francis had a late penalty opportunity to win the game for Neath Port Talbot but the strong wind took his kick wide of the left hand upright and both sides had to be content with a draw.
Watch highlights of today’s Wednesday League game on Rygbi Pawb on S4C at 11.10pm.
