By Paul Williams
Aberavon picked up a losing bonus point thanks to their having scored four tries in their second Super Rygbi Cymru outing of the 2026-27 season, but were eventually overhauled by an Ebbw Vale side that hit top form during the second half.
It was a match that underlined the vastly differing priorities of the two clubs. Ebbw Vale currently have the luxury of a settled side that enjoyed considerable success in 2025-26. In contrast, Aberavon are still looking at options, with a number of new recruits to their playing staff along with a number of changes to their coaching staff, and while they made a bright start to the match, they were eventually overpowered by more experienced opponents who relied on a powerful display largely built on set-piece strength.
It was the home side, however, that made the brighter start and were 19-12 ahead at the interval with their more adventurous approach of spreading the ball wide with long, accurate passes yielding two tries for ace finisher Frankie Jones in the left-hand corner. Not that that was the only string to the Aberavon bow – a driving maul had also proved effective with hooker Gavin Parry – a summer recruit at the Talbot Athletic Ground making his first competitive start – crashing over beneath the usual pile of bodies. Charlie Thomas landed two conversions. For the visitors, meanwhile, tries from Harry Rees-Weldon and Dafydd Thomas, the first converted by fly-half Kai Kinsey, kept them just a single score behind at the interval.
Unfortunately for the Wizards, the visitors’ greater experience was to provide the upper hand after the interval. A frustrating first half had seen them fail to establish their customary territorial advantage during a first half that saw the Wizards seize the early initiative, but as the second half wore on so the Ebbw Vale pack were able to exert greater control over both possession and territory. Tries inevitably followed from Ieuan Morris, Morgan Rees (twice), Dafydd Thomas (again), Ethan Phillips and James Talamai, with Kinsey adding five conversions to eventually run up a total of 52 points.
Amidst all that the Wizards were still able to conjure a quality try when wing Felix Gilbert darted down the right wing before offloading to hard-working skipper Rhys Thomas who touched down for replacement fly-half Stef Jac Jones to convert, and it must be said that while the Wizards may be contemplating a bitterly disappointing result, they should also remember that they scored four quality tries against a strong team at the top of their game to earn a bonus point.
