This week saw the 1st XV home to Neath in a Welsh Premiership tie, and the Warriors entertaining Tondu in a crucial game in Division 6 East Central.

The 1st XV started poorly with Neath scoring a converted try in the first few minutes after a couple of early errors.

Bargoed settled though and started to play some great attacking rugby, dominating territory and possession, but they weren’t clinical enough to convert it into points.

Eventually the pressure told and after Neath had collapsed a maul close to the line, a penalty try was awarded, along with a yellow card after 19 minutes.

Josh Prosser and Matthew Lewis were managing the kicking game effectively as Neath struggled to get out of the grip that the hosts had on the game.

Bargoed continued to stretch Neath with the back three of Dylan Williams, Morgan Powell, and Ashley Norton all impressing with ball in hand.

Bargoed’s pack were on top at scrum time and pressured Neath and when the opportunity came after 29 minutes Bargoed cleverly played off a great scrum platform to put Dylan Williams in wide out and take the lead 12-7.

Neath managed to get a foothold in Bargoed’s half after an error let them in. They looked to get a score before half time but Bargoed defended well and looked as though they had weathered the storm.

However they failed to exit out of their half as they missed a line-out that allowed the hosts back in with half time approaching, and they took advantage and scored in the corner to make it 12-12 at half time.

Bargoed started the second half like the first half conceding an early converted try and were down 19-12.

Neath had the upper hand in that third quarter and they scored again after a penalty was awarded and Dylan Williams was harshly yellow carded, to lead 26-12.

Bargoed made some changes and started to get more possession as they entered the final quarter. They lost Ashley Norton to a yellow card, and time was running out.

The bench made an impact as the pack worked hard to retain possession and it was Jason James who crashed over for the try that was converted by Josh Prosser to close the gap to 26-19 with four minutes on the clock.

Neath conceded a penalty and Bargoed kicked to the corner, then won the line-out and drove Neath back 15 yards with Morgan Thomas crashing over to make it 26-24.

The conversion was narrowly missed and Neath got the win, but there was some consolation for the hosts who picked up two bonus points.

Bargoed will know that this was a missed opportunity and a game that they should have won.

They conceded two early tries scored through poor defence at the start of each half. However there were plenty of positives for Bargoed in the performance, in a game where both sides looked to play attacking rugby.

Bargoed currently sit in fourth place behind Neath in the WRU Premiership.

The Bulls have not given up on getting into the top three, but there is no doubt that this defeat has made that more difficult. However there are still seven games to play and in this league the results are difficult to predict, so anything can happen.

The Warriors welcomed Tondu to Bargoed Park and came away with a 29-5 victory with tries from Lewis Jones and Brad Crossman 2 , Joey Hall and Charlie Williams who also added the extras with the boot.

It was great to see Lewis Jones in action after a long lay off through injury. There was also a senior team debut for Youth Captain Cody Rees who was awarded the Player of the Match in an excellent performance & a debut for Brad Crossman.

The Warriors have now cemented their place in the top 3 and are promoted as we have been told 3 teams go up this season.

The Warriors have three games left against Brecon, St Peter’s and Penallta, It’s going to be a good last month where they are looking to win these games and put pressure on Cardiff Met at the top. It’s all to play for boys!!