Ulster Ravens 25 - 12 Aberavon

The Ulster Ravens, sponsored by CD Group finished their British and Irish Cup campaign on a high with a victory over Welsh side Aberavon at Deramore Park in Belfast.

The Ravens outscored the visitors by three tries to two with all the touchdowns coming in the first half.

It only took the Ravens three minutes to open the scoring, they turned Aberavon over on their own 22 and the forwards drove before scrum half Connor Young put in a probing kick to turn the visitor’s defence. Aberavon winger Morgan Williams went down on the ball but spilled it allowing Ricky Andrew to pick up and go over with Peter Nelson adding the conversion.

Nelson extended the Ravens lead with a ninth minute penalty after the visitors were punished for hands in the ruck.

Kiwi, Ronald Raaymakers got the Ravens second try on 15 minutes.

The home side elected to kick a penalty into touch, from a catch and drive the maul was pulled down and the Ravens went to the corner again, from the second line-out Raaymakers powered over from the back of the maul but Nelson was unable to convert.

Aberavon got back in the game from the restart, Young put in a poor clearance kick, Cameron Clement sent it back but a Ravens player touched it in flight playing everyone on side, Kieran Harris reacted quickly picking and breaking a couple of tackles before offloading to centre Matthew Jenkins to go over in the corner but the outhalf Clement failed to convert.

The Ravens scored their third try on 34 minutes and it was the best of the game.

Outhalf Sean O’Hagan got the ball on his own 10 metre line he threw a dummy which completely wrong footed the visitors defence and went through a huge gap, he got deep into the Aberavon 22 before popping the ball to centre Sam Arnold to touch down and Nelson converted.

(Man of the Match, Sam Arnold, with Ken Knox from Sponsor, CD Group) 

Aberavon had the last word of the first half when they ran back a poor kick out from defence, Harris broke through some weak tackling and fed Morgan Williams the ball, he went over Nelson to score and Clement’s conversion cut the Ravens lead to 22-12 at the interval.

The Ravens were frustrated in the second half and couldn't turn their dominance at the scrum into points; although they were not helped when the set piece went uncontested.

The only points of the second half came from a Nelson penalty. Full time score Ulster Ravens 25, Aberavon 12. 

Teams

Kyle McCall, John Andrew, Ricky Lutton, Lewis Stevenson (capt), Neil McComb, Ronald Raaymakers, Sean Reidy, Charlie Butterworth;

Replacements

Paul Jackson for J Andrew 43 mins, Jonny Simpson for Arnold 76 mins, John Donnan for McComb 50 mins, Frank Taggart for Raaymakers 39 mins, David Shanahan for Young 43 mins, Josh Bingham for O’Hagan 35 mins, Rory Scholes for Stockdale 50 mins.

KIieran Harris, Morgan Williams, Matthew Jenkins, Darren Ryan, Kristian Corbisiero, Cameron Clement, David Pritchard;

Rowan Jenkins, Luke Davies. Ryan Harford, Ben Davies,Sam Williams, Rob Dudley Jones, James Bija, Ben Thomas;