Fixture

Charles Dickens would have failed to write such a tale of two halves as unfolded as the comp fields on Sunday. Taffs Well under 14’s arrived early and looked full of zest and vigour as they completed their warm up activities. Having heard of the AmmoKnights proclivity to take their Sunday morning slumber into the early stages of their rugby encounters, the visitors felt obliged to take a 7-0 lead within 2 minutes of kick off. Sleepy defending around the breakdown left a gap just too inviting to turn down and it allowed AmmoKnight players to continue wiping sleep from their eyes behind the posts. Llantwit continued to gift Taffs Well points and a defensive line that resembled Emmental cheese allowed the visitors to take a 21-0 lead inside the opening 10 minutes. Taffs tails were up and the early scores could have been greater if not for the defensive efforts of centre Ethan White who seemed to be trying to bring down everything that moved. The AmmoKnights got themselves into the game after some persistent pressure in the visitors 22 left a gap for number 8 Pete Mitchell to power over and Ethan White slotted over the difficult kick and it looked to be more a game.

Taffs Well weren’t in any mood to give this game up and it was only minutes later that they burst through some lacklustre defending to cross the whitewash for their fourth try and a 26-7 half time lead. The sequence leading up to the try saw the AmmoKnights lose their scrum half, outside half and outside centre all to injury and left them with a very inexperienced looking back line.

The start of the second half saw both teams enjoying early exchanges as the scoreboard continued to tick over with a try apiece. Resembling a grizzly bear emerging from its winter hibernation, the AmmoKnights finally woke and begun to make inroads into the 17 point deficit. Morgan Jenkins started the comeback when after some sustained pressure he crossed in the corner to close the gap. Sensing the game was afoot the home fans joined the AmmoKnights in waking up and begun to cheer their Sunday morning troopers. Sam Brown finished off a good move for the AmmoKnights fourth try and following a simple conversion the score was 26-31. Using fingers and thumbs to work out the score the home players begun to realise they were in the game and moments later Ethan White crashed over for his second try. A 19 point swing seemed to have knocked the stuffing out of the visitors and 2 further tries completed a remarkable finale to the match. At the final whistle players and supporters alike tried to make sense of the last quarter that saw the hosts running in an astonishing 5 tries and racked up 35 unanswered points to end the game deserved winners.

An entertaining match that produced 12 tries and some great attacking rugby. The AmmoKnights showed great character overcoming injuries to some key players and will hope to show more attacking verve next week against Porthcawl who visit the Recreation Ground.