Blaina 38 Abergavenny 18

RUNAWAY Division Three East leaders Abergavenny RFC lost their second game of the season to Blaina on Saturday, ending their long unbeaten run in "schoolboy" fashion, according to coach Gary Lawrence.

Mid-table Blaina overturned Aber in their own back yard earlier this season and Lawrence's men made the trip west looking to exact revenge this time around.

But another below-par performance featuring too many unforced errors allowed Blaina to cement their status as Aber's bogey side.

Lawrence said: "It seems their style of rugby doesn't coincide with ours. We won plenty of possession, maybe 60 or 65 percent, but we didn't use it and we couldn't get the ball away from contact areas."

He added: "They put on a lot of pressure around our numbers nine and ten. A lot of the ball we had was slow; we looked really pedestrian behind because of that fact."

But, as well as praising Blaina for the way they executed a game-plan to keep Aber at bay, Lawrence was also understandably disappointed with his own side's performance.

He mused: "A few people perhaps picked Saturday to have a poor game. We committed too many unforced errors and that flattered the score. "They've scored five tries, of which one was through good play and four were our own mistakes.

"It was schoolboy stuff. In the past we've got away with it through our dominance up front, but not on Saturday."

Hosts Blaina raced to an early lead with a try inside the first few minutes, but Abergavenny rallied and should have had more to show for their efforts by half time than a solitary try and a penalty. Instead, despite a period of sustained pressure in and around the Blaina 22, Matthew Price's try in the corner and two kicks from James Didcote at fly-half were scant reward.

A second-half try from Steve Hamer and another Didcote penalty took Aber's final tally to a modest 18, but, as Blaina capitalised on Abergavenny errors, there was only going to be one winner.

Lawrence added: "Hopefully this result will wake a few people up. We've got the weekend off for the internationals and have arranged friendlies against Gwent Police (tonight, at home) and at Newbridge on Saturday.

"We'll be blooding a few fringe and young players, but mainly putting out a strong side, at 90 or 95 percent strength, to try to get back on track."