by Nathan Parker & Ben Jones
A GALLANT effort by 14-man USW wasn’t enough to take the spoils as Swansea University claimed a hard-fought 29-26 victory at Sketty Lane.
Fly half Cavan Slade kicked off the proceedings with USW looking for their first away win of the season. A bit of petulance from Swansea’s Hywell Williams, who threw the ball at opposite number Harry Rumens, gave Slade an early chance of points. But the number 10’s kick just went right of the mark.
Having sucked up the early USW pressure, Swansea turned defence into attack and scored the game’s first try. After picking up from the base of the scrum, number eight Charlie Samwells crashed over the line to give his side the lead, a quarter of an hour into the contest.
USW responded in textbook fashion though with a score of their own through captain Gareth Jones who pushed a driving maul over the line after Swansea’s Owen Flower was sent to the bin. Slade kicked the extras and it was a level ball game.
In the space of minutes, ecstasy turned to disaster for USW as the referee issued a straight red card to second row Ross Barnes for punching.
With USW now down to 14 men, winger Marcus Jones was moved to the flank. The change did nothing to improve the away side’s fortunes though, as Swansea fullback Max Nagy slalomed through the USW defence to give the home side the lead once again going into the break.
An exchange of Swansea passes to open up the second half, lead to a two-versus-one but a superb interception from Slade and breakaway thwarted Swansea’s attack, giving USW a breather.
USW turned on the pressure following this. This time, their play paid dividends and after numerous scrums on the Swansea try line, a penalty try was awarded and converted by Slade.
Swansea replied swiftly, as Wood scored in the corner, missing the conversion but put the home side 19-14 to the good.
The second half was more open, with Swansea showing attacking intent this time. Having USW on their own try line, they blocked the kick and thought they had a try when Ed Couzens touched down. A knock-on ruled it out, however.
Their try came only a minute later. A scrum in Swansea’s favour was carried to the line and over by Charlie Samwells, again converted by Wood.
USW responded right away. Substitute Joe Popple closed the gap once more, only for a penalty from Swansea’s Wood stretching the gap again.
The last moments of the game resulted in another USW try. Brendon Clark went over in the corner, but a little too late for the visitors as they lost their second game this season.
After the game, USW Captain Gareth Jones gave his thoughts on the narrow defeat: “Obviously it was a frustrating loss to take. We were down to 14-men, but it wasn’t the red card that cost us the game. Our error count was far too high and we’ve just got to learn from those mistakes.”
Looking towards the massive clash against Hartpury next week, Jones agreed that it is going to be a must-win game. “You look at this league and you see that anybody is capable of beating anybody. It’s a big ask to go down to Hartpury but it is a must win if we want to be serious contenders to go up.”
Star Player: Cavan Slade
