Forward power tells for Whitland

Whitland went down to defeat against high-riding Aberavon but again pushed the opposition all the way despite playing for the last 50 minutes with 14 men after flanker Mark Hughes had been shown the red card when taking exception to some provocation and retaliating.

It was a body blow for the livewire Hughes and The Borderers but they showed real grit to haul themselves back from a 14-point deficit after only eight minutes to trail by three points with 30 minutes to go - but then the pressure of playing a man short against big Wizards forwards told and the home side grabbed two further tries before the Borderers responded with the last score of the game.

It seemed that Whitland had left their recent willingness to graft on the team bus because no sooner than they had started, Aberavon claimed good tries from winger Sam Greenaway and full back John Williams, both converted by outside half Jamie Davies.

At this stage it seemed as if the hardy band of Borderers fans might need an abacus to count the points against them but Whitland simply rolled up their sleeves and were rewarded as New Zealand newcomer Andrew Jakeman played well in the back row alongside the pacy Hughes and skipper Phil Morgan as Daniel Griffiths slotted a penalty and winger Matiake Mafi raced over for an unconverted try after good work by Simon Rogers, Domenico Setaro and Sengili Tuihalamaka.

But then Hughes saw red and although the Borderers opened the second-half scoring with a neat drop goal from the influential Rogers they were unable to maintain forward pressure at set-pieces, despite the efforts of Gareth Williams, Steve Gerrard, Dai Ebsworth and Andy Webster.

The Wizards grabbed tries by former Whitland centre Paul Morgan and a second from Greenaway, with Davies landing his third conversion and replacement Tim Price also adding the extras to the final try. The Borderers scored the final try as Daniel Griffiths raced over and converted his own try.

It was small consolation, however, although team manager Frank Setaro was quick to praise his players shortly after the match because he felt that no-one could have done more than they did in trying circumstances.

Whitland: Daniel Griffiths: Matiake Mafi; Domenico Setaro; Sengili Tuihalamaka; Gavin Morris: Simon Rogers; Andrew Jenkins: Gareth Williams; Steve Gerrard; Andy Webster: Dai Ebsworth; Ricky Davies: Mark Hughes; Phil Morgan; Andrew Jakeman. Replacements: Dafydd Lewis; Andrew Harry; Matthew Hughes; Wayne Higgon; Chris Williams; Rob Phillips; Wayne Lewis.