Furnace 15 Aberaeron 17

At last! After eight years of frustration and anguish, Aberaeron will be plying their trade in Division 4 West next year after finally gaining promotion in what has been a very successful season. Other results over the past week had confirmed the elevation, and this last game of the campaign had little bearing on proceedings. Nevertheless it was important to finish on a high and this could very well have proved to be a stumbling block as Furnace had won all their previous seven games and could have figured in the race for the top but for an indifferent start to the campaign. Aberaeron were forced to make several changes following the midweek encounter at Fishguard but encouraged by the best travelling support in years, their superior forward power eventually bore fruit on the day and in the end being unlucky not to gain the bonus point to add the icing on the cake. Furnace’s main threat came from their backline and coupled with some defensive lapses by the visitors they were to benefit with two well worked tries to open up a ten point advantage early in the period . Aberaeron’s supremacy up front was their most potent force and they were rewarded minutes from halftime with a sixth try of the campaign for flanker Dafydd Williams, giving a much needed boost for the second period . There was stalemate for much of the second half as dour defence by Furnace continually thwarted a series of rolling mauls, very often resulting in indiscretion which on another day would have been more severely punished. With the clock ticking down Aberaeron were forced into taking the odd gamble and looked to have created an overlap which would have left a clear run to the line, but an overelaboreted pass in midfield only found the boot of the home centre and despite a frantic chase, Furnace reopened the advantage and looked to be home and dry. Ten minutes remained on the clock from the restart, and play for the whole of that period was confined deep in home territory, as Aberaeron moved up a gear seeking to overturn the advantage. The supremacy soon gained success as firstly Owain Williams crashed in under the posts, with Dylan Evans adding the all important conversion, followed within minutes with the third of the afternoon, top scorer Gareth Flynn claiming his fifteenth try of the season. The attempt to gain the bonus point was foiled in the last movement as Deiniol Evans, despite being over the line was penalised for double movement. Fittingly the last touch came the way of scrum half Euryl Rees, one of only two survivors from the previous successful campaign resulting in the obvious celebration at the final whistle. And so the curtain closes on a very long campaign, 9 months to the day of the first friendly way back in August. Time to reflect and also to plan ahead, but for now time to bask in the glory of a successful campaign.