EBBW Vale were made to work hard by their visitors as they clung on to their 100 per cent record by the narrowest of margins, writes Peter Hughes.

Bridgend spent the early minutes of the game camped in the home side’s half and they were rewarded with a seventh minute penalty from the boot of wing Will Holley.

When Ebbw Vale gained a penalty on the Bridgend 22 soon afterwards, they opted to kick for touch. The pack did the rest of the work, with skipper Ronnie Kynes claiming the opening try of the game with his trademark move.

When the home side were awarded a penalty on the half-way line a beautifully weighted kick from centre Carl Meyer got them to within five metres of the Bridgend line.

From the line-out, the visitors were penalised for pulling the maul down. They were unable to stop the Vale pack a second time and Kynes claimed his second try.

A second Holley penalty goal in the 34th minute making the score at the interval 14-6 to Ebbw Vale.

The most notable talking point in the opening minutes of the second half was the yellow carding of Rhys Clarke within seconds of coming on to replace flanker Cameron Regan when he was adjudged to have tackled a player in the air.

As the game approached the hour mark, with the hosts still a man down, a try for centre Stuart Floyd-Ellis, converted by Holley narrowed the gap between the teams to a single point.

Soon afterwards, Bridgend were reduced to 14 men when flanker Tom Morgan was dispatched to the sin bin for a trip.

Despite that, with quarter of an hour of the game to go, Bridgend took the lead for the first time through a Holley penalty from the 10m line.

The Steelmen had a kickable penalty of their own soon after but opted for touch and were unable to convert the opportunity into points.

They didn’t turn down a second kickable chance, Rhys Jones restoring their lead. With the penalty count growing Bridgend scrum-half Chris Williams saw yellow three minutes from the end and their hosts hung on for the win.

Scorers:
Ebbw – Tries: R Kynes (2); Cons: R Jones (2); Pen: R Jones
Bridgend – Try: S Floyd-ElliS; Con: W Holley; Pens: W Holley (3)

Ebbw Vale: D Haymond; S Thomas, C Meyer, D Franchi, T Fricker, R Jones, M Flanagan (D Jones 48), J Harries (R Jones 63), J Franchi (R Francis 72), R Sevenoaks (C Hicks 65), L Randall (K Parker 72), A Sweet, C Regan (R Clarke 48), R Kynes (capt), L Young.

Bridgend: M Kennedy; M Jones, S Floyd-Ellis, N Edwards (capt), W Holley, J Murphy, C Williams (C Tatum 57), R Apsee, I Merriman (O Thomas 57), C Lewis, C John, S O’Rourke, T Morgan, A Driscoll (A Evans 50), D Davies.

Ebbw star man: Joel Harries