“A STEP BACK IN TIME”
SEASON 1966 / 67
Reports in the Carmarthen Times and Journal of games played this season are few and far between and I have therefore included a report of an away match with Burry Port which the Quins narrowly lost. From competing in the Cup Final the previous year, results this season were poor with the Quins only managing to win 6 games. They lost 12 and 4 were drawn.
12th NOVMBER 1966
“QUINS FLUFF CHANCES AND COME A CROPPER”
(By kind permission of the Carmarthen Journal)
BURRY PORT 3pts; CARMARTHEN 0
Burry Port in the doldrums with only two wins this season were the last to believe they could snatch two points from cup finalists Carmarthen. But the Quins have also sunk low this year, so to claim their scalps is not a great achievement. Play was fairly even all along with the sides trying to measure up to each other and countering each others moves all the time.
The forwards battled it out hard indeed and it would appear that in this department lay the answer as to the dictates of this game. Carmarthen were a far heavier set of forwards but despite this, the home eight stuck to their guns valiantly and did not concede more than was really necessary.
BOOT, BOOT
Carmarthen could have made progress in the early stages but there was continued persistence in booting the ball by the half-backs with scrum-half Evans being the chief culprit in this respect. The All Blacks were doing well with Rutherford inspiring the forwards, but he must get better support in the loose mauls. The battle between the respective hookers was pretty even although with the extra weight that he had behind him, Bowen should have dominated matters, but Latham had other ideas.
Once again we saw some sound full-back play with Williams and Furlong very competent indeed and gaining full marks on this display. It would not have been surprising if we had not seen any constructive back play under the conditions but we did get flashes of promising movements and Carmarthen failed on at least three occasions to finish off some very good moves within an ace of the home line, but to the All Blacks’ relief they must have been grateful for some poor handling.
The home backs did not get many chances to upset the visiting defence. It was surprising that the “up and under” wasn’t exploited under such conditions but I cannot recollect seeing it at all during this match. Peter Evans was a very nippy scrum worker but his proneness to kicking cancelled out a lot of his good work and I felt that Barnett could have been brought more into play by his partner.
BATTLE ROYAL
There was a battle royal between Lyn Griffiths and Rutherford in the lines-out and I would give advantage to the All Black on this occasion because he constantly stole the ball and relieved the situation often for the home side with some crafty play. In the Burry Port pack, along with Rutherford, others who showed up well were Mathias, Williams and Lewis while Gerald Thomas was tremendous in his tackling and was a shining example in this department to players on both sides.
WINNER
The winning score came from the boot of Les Williams who kicked a magnificent goal from near the touchline when Lyn Griffiths was penalised. This was a tonic for the home side who continued to play above themselves and held out with just that three points lead to clinch the matter and gain two valuable points.
Carmarthen had a great chance of drawing level when the home side were penalised twenty yards out and bang in front of the posts. However, it appears as if the referee was not satisfied with the manner in which the visitors pondered over taking it that he blew up for a scrum and thus a glorious opportunity went west.
A word of praise is also due to Syd James, the evergreen Burry Port fly-half, who did a tremendous amount of work and saved many precarious situations. In the Carmarthen pack Griffiths, Evans, Bryan and Stevens worked hard. Behind them Delme Davies spoiled some good work by overdoing things.
The Carmarthen XV were:-
- George; D. Davies; M. Davies; G. Thomas; P. Evans; A. Barnett; G. Beynon; C. Evans; D. B. Thomas; N. Bryan; L. Griffiths; D. Thomas; A. Bowen; M. Stevens.