Fixture

A youthful looking Tumble squad, missing several first team regulars made the journey to Johnstown on Thursday night to play Carmarthen Athletic RFC in their last away fixture of the season and came up just short, losing 22-17. The first half was a nip and tuck affair with Tumble defending well playing against the wind and the slope at Athletic Park. Despite the Athletic having the upper hand on territory Tumble's defence looked well organised and held their opponents at bay. Athletic finally broke the deadline on the half hour mark when their scrum half broke through for a try which was duly converted to make the score 7-0. Four minutes later the Athletic were down to 14 men when one of their forwards was sent to the sinbin for a tip tackle on an opposite player. The first half ended with the Athletic 7-0 in the lead.

The second half saw the Magpies under pressure from the start and it only took the Red and Blacks three minutes to double their lead to 0-14 with a try and conversion from their fullback. The Magpies slowly brought themselves back into the game and on 64 minutes second row Ryan Lewis sidestepped the covering defence to score a well taken try. Captain and outside half Steven Hewitt stepped up to slot over the conversion to bring the score back to 14-7. The young Magpies side where guilty of switching off defensively in the aftermath of their score and they let the Athletic extend their lead to 19-7 three minutes later through a converted try to their outside half. The clock was now starting to count down and some conserted pressure on the Athletic defence from the Magpies saw replacement Dean Beamish go over for a try wide out on the left after 34 minutes. Hewitt slotted over a fine conversion from the touchline to bring the score back to 19-14 with six minutes to go and give the Magpies a potential bonus point. With only one minute of regular time to go the Athletic were awarded a penalty goal which they duly converted to apparently deny the Magpies even the conciliation of a losing bonus point. All was not lost however as in the last play of the game the Magpies were awarded a penalty of their own. Hewitt calmly nailed the kick at goal before the referee blew the final whistle to signal the end of the game, 22-17 to Carmarthen Athletic RFC.

The Magpies are back in action next Wednesday night, 9 May at 7pm when they welcome St Clears RFC to Parc y Mynydd Mawr for their final fixture of the 2018-19 season. Come and support the boys.

Ymlaen Y Piod