Maesteg misery after away defeat

Mar 30 2008 Wales on Sunday

Cross Keys 23-10 Maesteg

MAESTEG gave a spirited but ultimately fruitless performance at Cross Keys as their survival bid took was hit by another blow in terrible terrible conditions.

Fly-half Luke Richards tried to inspire the visitors by providing all his side’s points in the first-half with a try, conversion and penalty.

But they paid the price for falling foul of referee Gary Davies, who sin-binned each of the Maesteg front-row players during theat various points of the second half and dished out a yellow card to Keys hooker Lloyd Burns and red cards to visiting replacement Geraint Long and home flanker Rhys Peebles for fighting in the closing stages.

But Keys deserved their win for a strong start to the second-half, when they took control despite playing into a strong wind.

Lock Ben Watkins drove over after the break to add to centre Carl Pocock’s first-half score, while Scott Sneddon added a further five points to the eight he kicked before the break.

Cross Keys: Tries – C Pocock, D Watkins; cons – S Sneddon (2); pens – S Sneddon (3).

Maesteg: Try – L Richards; con – L Richards; pen – L Richards.