St. Clears 22 pts. Pembroke Dock Quins 5

The Quins put up a determined and dogged display before going down to a St. Clears side who outscored the them by three tries to one.

The Saints kicked off into the wind and were soon putting their opponents under pressure, and with just three minutes on the clock forced a penalty right in front of the posts; inexplicably, fullback Geraint Jones hit the post and the Quins cleared their lines.

The Quins in the early stages were soaking up most of what the hosts threw at them, and were never taking a backward step.

On 15 minutes, the Quins were awarded a penalty 50 yards out and, after some deliberation, outside-half Ben Hathaway’s monstrous attempt just passed by the outside of the uprights.

A few minutes later, St. Clears struck, when a mix-up on the Quins’ line enabled scrum-half Owain Davies to take full advantage and touch down near the corner. Jones converted with a fine kick.

There was no more scoring and the Saints turned around with a 7-0 advantage and with the elements behind them in the second half.

St. Clears started with a bang after the break, when they scored 10 points in just three minutes. First Jones slotted a simple penalty, then virtually straight from the kick-off, flanker Thomas Rees stormed away for his side’s second try. Jones converted to put St. Clears 17-0 up.

At this stage, it looked like the Quins were going to be in for torrid time, but nothing could be further from the truth, as they rolled their sleeves up and really took the game to the hosts and it was the least they deserved when flanker Stefan Halwood surged towards the Saints line and after numerous drives young prop Jack Davies forced his way over. Ben Hathaway missed the conversion.

The Quins were now on top as they put the Saints under pressure, but unfortunately they could not force a score.

Fifteen minutes from time, the game was sealed, when right wing Dan Gosling capitalised on a missed tackled and sprinted away to score in the corner for an unconverted try.

But it was the Quins who finished the stronger and Jack Davies was unlucky not to score his second try when he was penalised for a double movement 10 minutes from time.

The Quins seemed to improve as the game went on as the effect in the early stages of not having any pre-season matches took its toll.

Quins team: Mark Wooles, Josh Turner, Harry Lawrence, Thomas Doyle (capt), Daffy Lewis, Ben Hathaway, Rhys Bradney, Josh Boswell, Jake Newman, Jack Davies, Sam James, Mark Van Rhyn, James Gardener, Danny Manning and Stefan Halwood. Replacements - Martin Culley, Danny Woods and Dean Wilcox.