News

The Tigers headed to New Dock for their penultimate away game of the season on Saturday. With the host’s bottom of the league, this should have been a game to look forward to but with a ridiculous amount of unavailability, the squad travelled down to the bare bones. Dock begun well putting 3 points on the board almost immediately before Banc hit back with a cracking try. Full back Andy McCall, playing his first game in months, hit the line at pace and gave a superb off load for fly half Wayne Williams to go over. Dock hit back with a try shortly after off the back off a rolling maul and added the extras. To add to Banc’s woes, they lost centre Will Griffiths to an ankle injury after 20 minutes, to be replaced by the imposing Terence Northam, playing his first game in many years. Northam’s first job was to was to take the kick off which he did in style, plucking the ball out of the air with his opposite number breathing down his neck.  From this, the ball was spread and that man Williams scored a sensational solo try, sidestepping the covering defence to go over and hand back the lead to the Tigers. McCall added the extras. The pendulum swung back the way of the Dock with another try from a rolling maul which was proving to be their primary weapon on the day. Close to half time though, Banc had some sustained pressure and after great hands from the three quarters, Northam was able to power over much to the joy of the Penybanc supporters. The half time score was 15-17.

The sun came out over Trostre for the second half which was not good news for the big Tigers pack. The back row of Cellan Harris, Mark Tench and Aled Danter worked their socks off to get possession and they increased their lead with another individual piece of brilliance from scrum half Owen Williams, who darted his way through a gap before wrong footing the full back to go over. Banc now had their tails up and attacked from the kick off, great offloading from Harris and menacing skipper Adrian Pugh saw the latter offload to No 8 Danter who showed a clean pair of heels to the chasers to increase the lead further. With over an hour gone and the Banc front 5 tiring, Dock took back the ascendency with 3 unanswered tries through their destructive rolling maul which the Tigers had no answer to give them the lead. Veteran Mathew Ladd entered the fray and marshalled his troops well before prop Zac Rees put in bone shuddering hit on his opposite number. This allowed Banc to attack again with breaks from Tom Gale and McCall and some good recycling; Owen Williams was able to jink his way over from 40 metres. With minutes left, it was now all Banc. However, a couple of indifferent referring decisions saw the home side take the spoils. Full credit must go to New Dock, who played to their strengths but to a man, after being let down by so many, the Banc players deserve a huge pat on the back. They left with 2 bonus points which, before the game, coaches Williams & Williams would probably have taken. Special thanks to blockbusting wing Terry Bach and the wily old goat Mathew Ladd for helping out. Next up for the Tigers is a local derby against Betws on March 4^th.