Mighty Ducks bite back to win Swalec Bowl

A brilliant second half performance ensured Wattstown overcame their early jitters to put Fishguard & Goodwick to the sword and win the Swalec Bowl 27-17.

Wattstown lift the Swalec Bowl as their vanquished opponents look on.

It was an interesting encounter, and Wattstown simply grew in confidence the longer the game went on to record a slightly more comfortable victory than the scoreline suggests. In fact, they had a mercurial 10 minutes either side of half-time to thank for their victory in which they notched 20 points.

There was a physical opening to the game with both sides looking to assert some dominance and keen not to let themselves down on the big stage. It was also a little nervy, with Wattstown’s Ian Jones and Fishguard’s James Griffiths missing penalty attempts.

But the latter then ignited a personal scoring spree on 12 minutes as he put the Seagulls ahead with a penalty.

Four minutes later he took control once more. Collecting the ball in the middle of the pitch he drove at Wattstown and dodged tackles with his quick feet, much to the delight of the travelling 1,200 faithful who had come up from West Wales. Finding himself one-on-one with the covering defender he ignored the support outside him and sold the dummy to dive over under the posts and add an easy conversion.

After a scrappy period, The Ducks hauled themselves back in to it on the stroke of half-time. First, Richie Lewis used his own quick feet to dive over on the left after a period of pressure on 38, before Jones landed a fabulous drop goal in injury time to make the half-time score 8-10 to Fishguard.

Wattstown continued that momentum after the break and within a minute crossed again. A flowing move ended out wide with Matthew Davies feeding David Gibbs for the easiest of scores, but Jones again missed the conversion.

Just six minutes later, huge No8 Brendon Lyons, who had been sin binned for a dangerous tackle in the first half, powered his way through for a score to make amends, with Jones this time landing the conversion to make it 20 points in 10 minutes for the marauding Ducks.

The game then quietened down before an enticing ending to once again set pulses racing.

On 68, and Fishguard down to 13 men with Romeo Colella and David Evans in the bin, Wattstown substitute Nathan Bruford wriggled his way through for a fourth score, which he converted himself for 27-10.

The Seagulls did put sustained pressure on the Wattstown line late on, and in injury time Ed Bendall found his way over out wide to make the scoreline more respectable. Griffiths converted to make the final score 27-17.