ON a beautiful spring day at the Memorial Ground on Saturday, Blaenavon took on Nelson in what became a very entertaining game for the crowd basking in the spring sunshine, writes Mike Doolan.

Nelson were a very good side in the loose play and on several occasions their counter attacking, combined with some poor Blaenavon tackling, should have seen the visitors score. Blaenavon did eventually concede the penalty however, and Nelson slotted over to open the scoring after 16 mins.

Blaenavon were soon back on the attack but they looked rusty after not playing last week. One dropped pass would have resulted in a excellent try but it wasn’t going Blaenavon’s way at all. Nelson were under great pressure though and eventually coughed up a penalty which Darren Pearce had no problem slotting over to make it 3-3 after 32 minutes.

From the restart Nelson kicked their way down to the Blaenavon 25 metre line putting Blaenavon under pressure, and after a poor clearance kick, the Nelson flanker charged down the Blaenavon’s fullback kick to chase and score a good follow up try which was also converted to make it 10-3.

Nelson now had their tails up and were soon on the attack again running deep at the Blaenavon backs and causing them all sorts of problems.

The Nelson backs showed some slick handling to put their winger away in the corner for a well worked try but the conversion was missed. It made it 15-3.

Blaenavon redeemed themselves from kick-off with some big forward runs by Sam Cooke and Chris Jones and good back row work by Callum Davis, Wayne Redman and Chris Baldwin. A penalty saw Pearce step up to make it 15-6 to Nelson at half time.

The second half saw a totally rejuvenated Blaenavon team with the pack taking full control.

Pearce kicked two penalties in quick succession which made the score 15-12 to Nelson, but Blaenavon went on the attack again and with a good steady stream of ball from the Blaenavon forwards, and good solid play by the backs, saw flying winger Matthew Powell put clear.

With some great running skills, he weaved in and out of the Nelson defence to score a fantastic individual try in the corner, which wasn’t converted, to make it 17-15 to Blaenavon after 55 minutes.

Another driving line out and good driving by the Blaenavon front row of Lewis John, Dan Horseman and Sam Evans, saw the hard working Chris Jones crash over for a well deserved try. Pearce dually obliged with the conversion to make it 24-15 to Blaenavon.

It was one way traffic now with Blaenavon forwards totally dominant in all phases of the game and it was inevitable that Blaenavon would score again. From a superb grubber kick by Dan Phillips, the Nelson fullback had no option but to take it into touch. The resulting line out by Matthew Billings and good driving by the Blaenavon pack saw replacement hooker Peter Loader drive over for Blaenavon’s third try to make it 29-15.

Blaenavon, now hunting for that elusive fourth try and bonus point, went all out on the attack and from a clever kick ahead by Phillips saw winger Rhys Long chase the kick and touch down, only to been judged by the referee to be over the goal line and deny Blaenavon a well deserved bonus point making the Final score 29-15 to Blaenavon.

Tonight (Wednesday) Blaenavon play Brynmawr at the Brynmawr Recreation Ground in the quarter final of the Ben Francis Cup. Kick off is 7.15pm.