Just one game away for Nant and Bethesda - would they accept an all North Wales semi?
Following reports are by Rob Griffiths and taken from the Daily Post, North Wales' premier newspaper for rugby reports in the region
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Nant Conwy v Builth Wells
NANT Conwy assistant coach Mark Jones paid tribute to his side’s defence after they booked their place in the last four of the Swalec Plate with a hard-fought win over Builth Wells.
Nant initially struggled to get a foothold in the game against the Division Two West outfit, who were rushing out of defence to nullify the home side’s back line.
However, as they settled into the match Nant began to calm down and, despite having to hold out after a late onslaught from Builth, did enough to earn a place in the semi-finals against either North Wales rivals Bethesda, Ystrad Rhondda or Penallta.
Jones said: “It was an absolutely fantastic result for us, well for North Wales rugby as well as Nant Conwy to be honest.
“It was a really, really tough encounter and you can see why they are capable of bullying sides.
“They are a big and physical side and use a rush defence with lads flying out of the defensive line to put pressure on the player with the ball.
“Our lads had to really dig deep to try and counter the size of their players, because they really were a big side, but they did that. I know they (Builth) scored a try, but it came from a charged down kick and apart from that the lads nullified them.”
With a crowd of more than 500 in attendance at Trefriw, including fans from Caernarfon and Colwyn Bay rugby clubs, it was Nant’s fitness that proved to be decisive.
Full-back Carwyn ap Myrddin fired over an early penalty for Nant, before Builth winger John Thurston replied shortly after with a penalty of his own.
Nant scrum-half Ifan Jones – along with the majority of the crowd – thought he’d gone through for the first try of the match only to be called back by the referee, who had an excellent match, for an apparent knock-on in midfield.
And Nant were made to pay as the visitors went ahead when Jones’ clearing kick was charged down by back-row Andrew Duggan, who gathered the ball to score with Thurston adding the extras.
Nant forced their way back into the contest and were given their just rewards on the stroke of half time as winger Aeron Jones squeezed over for a try to send the home side in trailing only 10-8 at the interval.
Builth went further ahead with another penalty from Thurston after 50 minutes.
Nant captain Elgan Davies sent out a rally cry to his troops and they duly responded as Myrddin went through for a superb try six minutes later, which he converted himself to go 15-13 ahead.
Nant were awarded two penalties in their own half at around 70 minutes play when the visiting open side prop was adjudged twice to have brought the scrum down illegally.
Myrddin missed the first attempt but fired over the second to give Nant some breathing space.
During the last few seconds of play, Builth were awarded three successive penalties with not enough time to kick the ball out for a line-out and Nant were able to repel a late surge for their line and book their place in tomorrow’s Plate semi-final draw.
Jones added Nant were not worrying about who they drew in the next round, and were hoping the semi-finals would be played on a neutral venue in mid-Wales.
“We’re not looking at who we could draw to be honest,” said Jones. “There’s a one in three chance we could get Bethesda, so we have just got to take it as it comes.
“There will be no easy game whoever we draw in the semi-final, so we will just sit back and wait to find out.
“We do hope though that the game is played on a neutral ground, and we mean halfway, especially if we get one of the two South Wales sides in the draw, not somewhere in Swansea for example.”
Nant, along with North Wales rivals Bethesda, are now only 80 minutes away from a possible final appearance at the Millennium Stadium, but Jones was at pains to point out no-one at the club was getting ahead of themselves.
He added: “We can’t look that far ahead, we are simply looking and focusing on our next game which is a week on Saturday against Bala in the North Wales Cup semi-final.
“There are three really good teams left in the competition, and our priority is simply the next game we have.
“We will look at Bala, and then after that game we will look to the next game, that’s all we are doing.”
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Bethesda 34 v Pontypool United 6
BETHESDA coach Will Sandison was finding it hard to hide his joy after seeing his side claim a 34-6 win over Pontypool United and move into the last four of the Swalec Plate.
But despite being just 80 minutes away from a dream final appearance at the Millennium Stadium, Sandison was not allowing himself to think too far ahead.
“It was a great win, and we worked very hard for it,” said Sandison. “There was a fantastic atmosphere at the ground, with certainly the biggest crowd of the season we’ve had. It was great that the virtually the whole village came out to support us.
“We are only one game away from a final in Cardiff, but the other three teams left in the Plate are either first or second in their divisions, so we are not taking anything for granted at all.
“Nant are second in North Wales and the two South Wales sides are either top or second in their Division Two in South Wales, so whoever we get drawn against in the semi-final we know we are going to be in for a tough match.
“We will take it one game at a time, that’s all we can do. We are not looking at the final, because we are not in it, we have a semi-final to come and we know whoever we draw it is going to be a really tough game.”
Sandison will now have one eye on tomorrow’s Plate semi-final draw with Bethesda going into the hat along side North Wales rivals Nant Conwy, who claimed a win over Builth Wells, and Ystrad Rhondda and Penallta.
However, the head coach did reserve special praise for Bethesda backs coach Keith Withers, especially after seeing all four of their tries against Pontypool United scored by their back division.
“I have to give special praise to Keith,” said Sandison. “He has worked really well with our backs and done an extremely good job in turning them into a good outfit.
“The forwards yesterday worked really hard to secure ball for the backs and they took advantage to run in the scores.”
Winger Ben Stelmascek crossed for a brace of tries, while Matthew Parry and Dave Thomas also crossed in the win.
Last week Sandison refused to explain to the Daily Post what Bethesda’s game plan was going to be for the visit of Pontypool United to Ddol Ddafydd, in case anyone from the opposing camp saw the paper.
However, Sandison was happy to reveal in the aftermath of the win that his plan had worked almost to perfection.
“In the end it was a good win for us,” said Sandison. “But we had to work very hard for it, and only in the end did it look a convincing win.
“We had a game plan and we stuck to it and it worked. We knew they had a big aggressive pack of forwards and our tactics were centred around moving them around in the first half and trying to tire them out and then looking for the gaps which would appear in the second half.
“That’s exactly how it panned out, we are leading 7-6 at half time and then in the second half we were able to cut loose a little bit and take advantage of a tiring pack and run in some very good tries.”
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