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St Clears 33-10 Emlyn Dreigiau.

Newcastle Emlyn Dreigiau travelled to St Clears with a youthful looking side for what would arguably be their biggest test of the season so far with a few experienced players unavailable and it turned out to be a real test of character.
The reds were forced to shuffle their team and Crwys Rees came in at outside half to replace regular playmaker Barry Thomas and with Nikki Williams not available Aled Davies was retained as captain.
The game started at a fast pace with both sides looking sharp but it was the hosts who created the early chances but the Dreigiau back line defence was up to the task with player coach Curtis Bradford and Llew Morgan showing great determination to track back and prevent the Saints scoring on two occasions but the stalemate was eventually broken when the hosts slotted over two penalties.
Emlyn came back well and showed a great deal of patience with the forwards chipping away and after a number of phases they managed to dive over with both Gareth Patterson and Aled Jones in control of the ball and left to fight it out over who actually scored.
Rees slotted over a simple conversion and then minutes later scored a penalty to put the visitors ahead and the red and whites almost increased their lead when some great handling skills from the centre pairing of Morgan and Bradford put exciting runner Llyr Freeman into some space, but some outstanding scramble defence from the hosts kept the flying winger out.
With the score at 11-10 at the break and with the home team just ahead the message from the Dreigiau coaching staff was to nail the vital first score of the second half but unfortunately it didn't go to plan with Saint Clears running in for two quick fire tries and the visitors were always chasing the game after this and as the missed tackle count started to rise so did the score, with two further tries following in close succession.
A disappointing second half for the Ddol Wiber men who dominated at scrum but they made the Division 3 West outfit work very hard for their win. 
Speaking after the game coach Bradford said:"We were very good in the first half, but we have to be honest and say we need to improve on our basic skills for next time" 
Curtis and team manager Haydn Morgan will no doubt rally their troops in time for their Division 3C pilot program this weekend away at Pontyates