“A STEP BACK IN TIME”
1969-70 SEASON
7th MARCH 1970
“BARNETT FAILS BY INCHES AND QUINS ARE K.O’ D”
(By kind permission of the Carmarthen Journal)
Skipper Evans suffers from poor service
CARMARTHEN 3pts, MORRISTON 5pts.
(By Roger Phillips)
Giant-killers Morriston marched triumphantly into the third round of the West Wales Cup after pulling off another “David and Goliath” feat at Carmarthen Park on Saturday.
In 80 bruising minutes they dazzled the Quins with flashes of brilliant football which surprisingly only earned them one goal late in the first half. The try was scored by centre Mike Price. Andy Barnett replied for Carmarthen with a second-half penalty.
Morriston were always more versatile up front and behind the scrum and in inside-half Huw Evans, fly-half Gwynne Lewis and wing Roger Morgan, they have players who could blaze a trail of cup glory. Morgan had several tremendous runs down the wing and Lewis’ kicking was particularly effective. In the pack Morriston had things all their own way. They made the Carmarthen eight look second rate. No opportunity was lost to get the ball quickly away from loose rucks and set pieces.
SLOWER
While the Morriston pack eased the burden on inside-half Huw Evans, the Carmarthen pack had nippy srum-half and captain Peter Evans pulling at his hair. In the opening stages they tapped the ball back suicidally and as the game wore on their service became slower, giving Evans and fly-half Barnett little time to move before the Morriston defence were pounding down on them. But despite this handicap, Evans stuck manfully to his task and tried to run the ball when the situation allowed.
Morriston called the tune for the whole of the first half and were rarely out of Carmarthen territory. In the seventh, 11th and 19th minutes, they had three chances to go ahead. However, centre Mike Price and full-back John Hughes, who had an outstanding game, failed with kickable penalties. Morriston quickly forgot these failures and thrilled the small crowd with scintillating precision movements in which both backs and forwards handled expertly. From a scrum on the Carmarthen ten yard line, the ball was swiftly worked to Morgan who cut inside his opposite number and flashed along the touchline only to be grounded inches short by a bone-crushing tackle from full back Brian Furlong.
ON TOP
From the ensuing scrum, the ball was flipped to fly half Lewis, who drew the Carmarthen cover defence with a dummy scissors before passing to centre Mike Price who burst through to score under the posts. Full back Hughes converted. Whatever Carmarthen skipper Peter Evans told his side at the interval, it completely changed the pattern of play in the second half.
The Quins’ pack got well on top from the start and with number eight Lyn Powell and second row Clive Evans winning more of the lines-out, the backs found themselves with a little more room in which to move. Centres Percy Jones and David Dyer and wing Spencer Jones warmed to their task with several brilliant runs which forced Morriston to desperate measures.
Ten minutes into this half, Andy Barnett cut Morriston’s lead with an excellent 30 yard penalty. This score injected more life and vigour into Carmarthen and threequarter runs became more frequent. Percy Jones created overlaps on the left but winger Mike Thomas, a converted prop forward, lacked the pace to turn these ideal scoring situations into points.
Then Barnett had a chance to clinch victory with a 25 yard penalty but to the relief of Morriston the ball went inches wide. Morriston came close in the dying minutes when Hughes rattled the crossbar with a penalty kick from the touch-line.