A visit to Llandovery is always a testing experience and a Thursday evening trip to Church Bank for the benefit of armchair fans was to provide even greater problems than normal. Team selection was hampered by unavailability caused by work commitments, international calls and injury meaning a Cardiff selection that bore only passing resemblance to the side that Steve Law would have ideally put out for a visit to the second placed side in the league. The difficult task was made even harder with the news that captain Morgan Allen had been held up by a road accident near Bristol and would not be starting meaning a further reshuffle of the deck, with hooker Evan Lloyd starting at number 8 instead of Allen.
Cardiff started well and took the lead after just 5 minutes when Fish kicked a penalty. Llandovery came back strongly and a period of good pressure was brought to a halt when Beal covered a kick through and managed to scramble the ball into touch. The reprieve was only temporary and from the line-out centre Rhodri Jones was put through. He appeared to be brought down short of the line, but after consulting the TMO the referee decided that a try had been scored (even though pictures seemed to show that Jones had rolled to the line), Maynard converted. From the restart Llandovery made a mess of collecting the ball, conceding a penalty that Fish converted. The Llandovery lead was soon extended when Osian Davies was brilliantly put through by prop Berian Watkins, Maynard again converting.
The Drovers tails were now well and truly up and Cardiff were unable to break the stranglehold. Before half time the home side had added another well worked try, by Adam Warren, converted, of course, by Maynard a drop goal by Ioan Hughes. On the stroke of half time a long range penalty by Maynard extended the lead.
Half Time: Llandovery 27 Cardiff 6
As the teams came out for the second half Cardiff supporters were delighted to see the figure of Morgan Allen running out. The appearance of their talismanic captain, and whatever Steve Law said at half time, had an immediate impact as Cardiff started the second half with a bang. After a period of sustained pressure Alun Rees drove over from a maul following a line-out, Fish converting. Any hopes of a dramatic second half revival were soon quashed, however, when the TMO intervened and the referee decided that a Pinches tackle was deserving of a yellow card. With Cardiff down to 14 men Harri Doel scored for the Drovers, with Maynard adding the conversion as well as adding a penalty. The last 20 minutes saw a raft of changes that gave a debut in Blue and Black for Lloyd Ashley (on loan from Merthyr). After further TMO interventions two Cardiff tries were questionably disallowed for forward passes, Lloyd Pike escaped with a yellow card (after a tackle that has often resulted in a red) and Harrison James finally scored a try that Fish converted to give the score a degree of respectability.
Full time: Llandovery 37 Cardiff 20
