The visitors dominated possession and took an early lead with a penalty from Cameron Clement. The fly half added another three pointer with 20 minutes on the clock for what would be the final score of a poor first half of rugby from both sides.
As the half went on, both sides missed further penalty attempts and the half was to get worse for Bridgend. James Dixon was shown a yellow card for talking to the referee and a culmination of penalties as Aberavon had the better of the refs whistle.
With the Ravens down to fourteen men, the visitors upped their attack. The Wizards seemed to have worked a great score only for an excellent try saving tackle from Adam O’Driscoll, Bridgend managed to clear the resulting lineout and hold out for the remainder of the half.
The second half started in similar fashion to the first, a scrappy affair with lots of kicking and handling errors.
Aberavon, still with a man advantage, were probing for the games first try. A good break in midfield from the Wizards resulted in another fine tackle from Adam O’Driscoll, forcing a knock on as the hosts held out once more.
Aberavon finally got the games first try with the clock approaching 60 minutes. A blind side move resulted in Wizards scrum half Pritchard touching down. Clement added the extras to push Avon out to a 13 point lead.
Adam O’Driscoll was the man singled out following a brawl between the two sides and the flanker was shown a yellow card, as Aberavon fly half Clement added another three points from the tee.
The Ravens’ best opportunity of the match saw Chris Lewis race through a big gap the the visitors defence. Lewis rounded a covering defender before offloading in field. The centres offload fell to a returning defender and the attack was halted 10 metres out.
With 72 minutes on the clock, the Wizards went over for their second try of the match. An interception from Pritchard saw the scrum half race over from 50 metres out to end any hopes that the Ravens still held. Clement added a fine wide conversion to round off the visitors scoring.
A yellow card for Aberavon with five minutes remaining allowed the Ravens to build in attack. Bridgend eventually got their first points in the match as Principality Premiership top try scorer Tom O’Flaherty took his tally to 14. Howe added the conversion but the score was a mere consolation in what was a bad day at the office for the Ravens.
Pritchard ends Ravens hopes
Bridgend fell to a disappointing 7-23 defeat to Ospreylian rivals Aberavon at the Bridgend Ford Brewery Field.