By Jared Parry
UNIVERSITY of South Wales edged a tight affair at Cardiff Arms Park against University of the West of England that saw both sides claim three tries.
In the end it was the goal-kicking of Liam Herdman that made the difference for USW on a freezing cold night in the Welsh capital.
After a cagey opening, the game sprung into life when the USW winger, Pedro Pedatoga powered down the wing and into the 22 only to be stopped by UWE’s Joe Massarella. USW got the ball away from the breakdown, but conceded a penalty for holding on in the next phase.
UWE opted to kick for touch but failed to get the ball off the field allowing USW’s Iwan Dawes to break and offload the ball to Rhys Peters who produced the first try of the game. Herdman struck the conversion against the post.
But UWE soon hit back when some slick back-line passing saw Tom Davies cross the line, even though the scoring pass looked forward.
There was a setback for the hosts when No8 Logan Walsh was sin-binned for a no-arms tackle and the visitors took advantage of the extra man advantage to claim a second try through Max Mayes and five points via the boot of Oli Radford.
Trailing 17-5 at the interval, USW came out firing in the second half.
Jacob Skeels and Pedro Pedatoga were both at the centre of dangerous attacks and the pressure soon yielded a penalty which Herdman sent between the sticks.
And it was that man Herdman who got USW right back into it with a cheeky grubber kick through the UWE defence which he gathered to score and then convert to haul his side to within two points at 17-15.
Herdman’s penalty and converted second try after UWE made a mess of a drop-out 22 proved to be enough for USW despite a late pick-and-drive touchdown by the away side.