Wednesday 15^th February 2017.

Year 9 advance to Semi-final of Swansea Cup.

 There’s no way past Gowerton’s defensive wall.

 Gowerton year 9: 43 Pentrehafod yr 9: 12.

Pietrapertosa’s hat-trick keeps year 9 on course for St.Helens.

       Gowerton hosted Pentrehafod at Gowerton RFC in the quarter final of the Swansea schools’ cup. The two teams served up an entertaining cup tie with the visitors well served by the pace of centre Dylan Scott-James and fly half Ethan Reynolds whilst at forward, lock Harley John and flanker and captain William Ellis both carried strongly. However, it was the hosts who proved to be the more cohesive unit and ultimately that greater teamwork saw them emerging victors 43-12.

Man of the match:

Leo Pietrapertosa.

The fastest milkman in the west!

Tom Richards.

       Gowerton started positively with lock Adam Williams, flanker Sam Terry and prop Owen Parry all working hard to secure possession and with centres Teigue Williams and Gavin Williams impressing with the speed and quality of their distribution. The hosts opened the scoring in the 4^th minute when good work by Gavin Williams and flanker Sam Terry set up a maul 5 metres out from which flanker Leo Pietrapertosa emerged to plunge over. Fly half Alex Hughes added the extras with an excellent conversion from wide out.

Four minutes later, a powerful drive by No.8 Darragh Cahill took him to within 30 metres of the visitors’ line and when the ball emerged from the maul, fly half Alex Hughes set off on an arcing run that took him to the line for a try he converted himself.

Hooker Jamie Parry looks to offload.

       With the visitors struggling to find their feet, Gowerton added a third try when wing Alister Morgan made a long run out of defence, he transferred the ball inside to captain Teigue Williams who fed flanker Pietrapertosa and he crossed to stretch the lead to 19 points.

The visitors were deservedly on the board in the 19^th minute when the ball was spilled on halfway and impressive centre Scott-James gathered and sprinted clear.

On the stroke of half time, it was Gowerton who reacted quickly to some sloppy play and centre Gavin Williams was on hand to ‘dot down’ beneath the posts when a loose pass bounced awkwardly in in-goal. Fly half Hughes added the extras and Gowerton led 26-5 at the break.

The visitors started the second half positively and centre Scott-James produced an excellent individual effort that saw him set off from halfway on a run that saw him brush aside a number of tacklers before outpacing the cover to score a try that fly half Reynolds converted.

The girls (and Alister Morgan) were out in force to support the lads.

The game was now evenly poised, but the hosts re-gathered their composure to cross for three further tries in the last quarter. Firstly, a clever offload from centre Isaac Clark allowed man of the match Pietrapertosa to complete his hat-trick. Gavin Williams converted. Then, an excellent pass from the unselfish Sam Terry allowed lock Adam Williams to dive over in the corner. Hooker Jamie Parry completed the scoring in the final minute, with a typically robust effort as the visitors tired.

Gowerton will host the victors of the ties between Dylan Thomas and Birchgrove and Bryntawe and Morriston in the semi final.