THE sun shone on the Recreation Ground at Blaenavon on Saturday and it didn’t stop shining until long after the floodlights were turned off on the day Blaenavon finally secured their first league win in three long months.

They beat a spirited and very athletic Glamorgan Wanderers side, currently lying fourth in a very tough league.

Blaenavon started well playing up the slope and were soon in the ascendency with good turnover ball by Callum Davis feeding the marauding Blaenavon pack. They drove up field allowing Richard Powell some decent ball to kick and gain position. After ten minutes a Blaenavon lineout five-metres from the Wanderers line saw a perfect catch and take and a Blaenavon driving maul, with Jamie Noble back in the boiler house, proved unstoppable with Noble crossing for the first try of the day. No conversion.

Blaenavon seemed quite comfortable in defence with good play by scrum half Ryan Bates clearing the Blaenavon line and getting the backs going forward, but the Wanderers were very good at the breakdown and caused Blaenavon to give away a penalty which they had no problem converting to make the score 5-3 to Blaenavon after 15 minutes.

With several players playing out of position Blaenavon had problems retaining the ball at the restarts and this allowed the Wanderers to have free possession which they exploited to the full.

But the Blaenavon defence held up steadfast and with good runs by Blain Meek and Chris Baldwin they were soon back in the Wanderers 25-meter line causing them to infringe and give Blaenavon a penalty right in front of the sticks. Powell had no problem slotting over to make it 8-3 to Blaenavon after 26 minutes.

Blaenavon started to play flowing rugby with good forward drives from Sam Evans, Lewis John, Dan Horseman and Chris Jones stretching the Wanderers defence. This allowed the Blaenavon backs to run the ball, which was whipped along the line, before a chip ahead by flying wing Matthew Powell and a good chase put the Wanderers defence in disarray, allowing Scott Creese to gather up the ball and score Blaenavon’s second try which was also converted to give the home side a 15-3 lead.

This proved a wakeup call for the Wanderers and they started to pressurise the Blaenavon line with some good attacking rugby. A poor clearance saw the fullback catch the Blaenavon back-line napping and a superb diagonal run saw him feed the wing to score their first try in the corner. They failed to convert. The half-time score was 15-8 to Blaenavon.

With the slope in their favour and the Blaenavon pack firing on all cylinders good things were promised in the second half. Blaenavon had the Wanderers pinned in the corner on two occasions with the line at their mercy, only to be penalised twice for holding on and squandered. It looked like Blaenavon were doing their best to lose the game as the penalty count racked up against them for basic errors and Glamorgan slotted over a easy penalty to edge nearer to the Blaenavon score 15-11.

This was further compounded when Blaenavon had a flanker sin binned for persistent fouling but managed to keep a rampant Wanderers attack at bay and held on to their lead thanks to some ferocious tacking by Davis and Chris Baldwin.

Further stalwart defending by Richard Dennington, Gareth Groves and Gareth Jones, and replacement scrum half Rhys Long, saw Blaenavon finally started to get back up field and exert some pressure on the Wanderers defence.

They conceded two penalties in quick succession which Powell converted to put Blaenavon 21- 11 in the lead with 70 minutes gone . The Wanderers did score another try in the corner and this made the final score Blaenavon 21 Glamorgan Wanderers 16

Blaenavon are away to Fleur-De Lys December 13 in a re-arranged league game.