18 Aug Plymouth Albion 19-19 Bridgend Ravens

Bridgend Ravens played out an entertaining 19-all draw with English National League 1 side Plymouth at their Brickfields home on the sunny South Coast on Saturday afternoon.

The hosts dominated the opening quarter but Bridgend will have been pleased with the majority of their defensive work, keeping Albion to just the 5 first half points. 

The Ravens finally got some ball and instantly saw results. Their first entry into the Plymouth 22 saw seven points on the board. Fraser Jones put in a neat grubber, a misfield in the backline allowed Lloyd Wilkins to hack on and score. Jones then landed a sweet touchline conversion to edge Bridgend in front. 

HT Plymouth Albion 5-7 Bridgend Ravens

Bridgend continued their period of dominance after the break. A turnover allowed Joseph Gatt to break down the wing and kick ahead. The experienced centre was taken out 5 metres from the line seeing Plymouth down a man for the next 10 minutes Bridgend struck from the resulting penalty. Spreading the ball wide, Jake Thomas found himself with plenty of space to touch down. Fraser Jones again landed a conversion from the touchline to push Bridgend out to a 9 point lead.

The visitors kept the pressure on and managed to add a third through Gabe Lacey. The replacement showed great power to bounce his would-be tackler and score out wide. Jones’ conversion slipped just wide.

Plymouth battled back adding two further scores in the last quarter, one converted to see the scores level when the final whistle arrived.

Bridgend will be pleased with their efforts, with lots of new faces finding their feet providing a quality first outing with plenty of work-ons as Bridgend build into their second Super Rygbi Cymru season.