ON a snow covered Blaenavon pitch Rumney overcame their hosts in thrilling encounter which saw both sides playing some attractive rugby, writes Michael Doolan.

With the conditions the way they were it was inevitable that this would be a kicking contest.

The game started brightly for Blaenavon with some solid defence from centres Scott Creese and Ben Snell.

The Rumney backs were razor sharp and was not giving Blaenavon any time to settle on the ball. From a scrum on the Blaenavon 22-metre line a slow delivery from the pack saw Darren Pearce have his clearance kick charged down by the Rumney scrum half and with some galling help from a ricochet from a overhanging tree he touchdown for their first try after nine minutes. The converstion was missed.

Blaenavon battled down field and with some crisp lineout ball from Matthew Billings and some crunching runs by Jamie Noble, Blaenavon were settling down nicely with some big hits going in by Chris Jones and Chris Baldwin.

There was some equally robust defending by Rumney and this resulted with Blaenavon being penalised.

This was converted to make it 8-0 after 20 minutes.

Blaenavon allowed Rumney to counter attack from the breakdown and with one such kick and chase saw the Rumney centre race to the line unchallenged to score their second try after 25 minutes. Again they failed to convert.

The rest of the half was taken up by Blaenavon attacking the Rumney line with good runs by hooker Dan Horseman.

Too often though the ball would be turned over with Blaenavon put on the defensive by quick Rumney counter attacks, something Blaenavon couldn’t seem to master.

From another five-metre defensive scrum Blaenavon were lucky not to concede another charge down try before half time.

The score was13-0 to the visitors, who had seem to adapt to icy conditions far better than Blaenavon

The second half saw Blaenavon playing down the slope with a more determined attitude and quickly put Rumney under pressure forcing them to concede a penalty which Darren Pearce duly obliged to make it 13-3 after 46 minutes.

But the Rumney backs were running riot behind and made a hash of at least two try scoring chances aided by some woeful Blaenavon tackling.

The Rumney back three were outstanding and it took some try saving tackles from Scott Creese and Gareth Jones to keep Blaenavon in the game.

With the clock against Blaenavon started kicking for the corner and from the resulting line out they kept pounding the Rumney line with good darting runs and turnover ball.

Soom after flying winger Gareth Jones split the Rumney defence clean open to score under the posts which allowed Darren Pearce the straight forward conversion to make the final score Blaenavon 10 Rumney Cardiff 13.

Blaenavon earned a well-received bonus point from a poor performance .

Next week sees Blaenavon away to league leaders Penalta . Kick off is 2.30pm. Blaenavon lost the reverse fixture 17-12 earlier in the season.