An under strength Glamorgan side were heavily beaten by league leaders, Exeter at Trefforest writes Ian Golden.

Because of injuries to eight key players, Glamorgan were only able to field 15 fit men and with two going down injured early on in the match, life was made all the more difficult for the home side.

Exeter took the lead after only 50 seconds with an Ollie Francis try under the posts. James Hunt converted.

But Glamorgan equalised just three minutes later through a Jason Tomlinson try in the corner. Gareth Evans successfully kicked the tricky conversion.

After that, Exeter ran riot. They were back in the lead less than five minutes later after Ollie Francis got his second

They increased their lead to 20-6 with two more tries in the next four minutes, Pete Russell pouncing on a grubber kick and Ollie Francis running from the half-way line to ground straight from kick-off.

It was 24-6 at half-time after a fine passing move was eventually finished off by Charlie Robin.

By this time, Glamorgan were down to 12 men through another injury,

but battled to reach the line just before the break after being given a penalty ten metres out. However, despite a full set of attempts to ground, the Exeter defence held firm.

Glamorgan closed the gap to 24-12 after six minutes of the second half after an excellent move led to Gareth Evans scoring and then converting his own try.

But that was just a brief respite for Exeter as they controlled the remainder of the match. Matt Welsey scored the next Exeter try on 52 minutes before setting one up for Gareth Tudor four minutes later.

Ollie Francis got his fourth try of the match on the hour before Joe Collins ran 50 metres to score under the sticks to make the score 46-12.

However, Glamorgan had the last score of the game after Shaun Walker fought his way through the defence to ground in the 80th minute.

At the half-way point in the season, Glamorgan are in third place in the table with the next two matches against Swansea and Gloucestershire, both at home.

Article by Ian Golden
18 Nov 2005