Furnace 33 Fishguard 10

Fishguard’s recent run of form came to a halt as they succumbed to a disappointing defeat away at Furnace.

The Seagulls, who arrived at Cael Castell with a disrupted squad, delivered an error strewn performance to succumb to their first league defeat since December 6th.

After going ahead with an early try from flanker Steve Evans, the home side never looked back as they capitalised on a series of unforced errors.

Left winger James Rowlands benefited from slick handling to extend the lead and although Huw Evans responded with a well struck penalty, veteran Alan Phillips soon found himself on the wrong side of a ruck and was duly yellow carded.

Furnace right wing Mark Cook then got in on the act with a sharply taken try and fly half Simon James added two conversions to give his side a 19-3 lead at the break.

To their credit the Seagulls charged forward after the interval but failed to take advantage of a heavy period of pressure. The away side were soon made to pay when flanker Evans again drove over to secure a bonus point, before Cook capped a dangerous display when he outstripped the cover defence to go under the posts.

However, the Seagulls did grab the last word when second row Ilasha Torau broke through and from the ensuing overlap Matthew George secured a consolation score.

Manager Peter Evans conceded his side, forced to move skipper Simon James from flanker to scrum half, were under strength but still labelled the display ‘disappointing’ “We never really recovered from going behind early on,” he said. “I felt we were stronger up front at times but made a lot of errors, especially at the breakdown.”

The Seagulls have an excellent chance to return to winning ways next week when they host struggling Swansea Uplands.