Builth Wells, the clear leaders, resume their promotion push in the Swalec League Division Two (West) at struggling Gorseinon tomorrow — with making history an added incentive.
Should the confident Bulls reel off an eighth straight league win, it will earn them a place in the club record books as it would equal the achievement of the 1992 side who won that many games in a row.
Builth took a break from their exciting league season to book a place in the third round of the Swalec Cup with a 12-7 verdict at Nelson Unicorns last weekend.
The Bulls fully expected a tough tie against the third division leaders, and that’s just what they got as they managed to seal hard-earned progress.
Coaches David Jones and Lyndon Hammond had to make nine changes, most of them positional, but Tom Price and Rob Mills were missing in the front row and an injury to skipper Wayne Morris meant he could only take a place on the subs’ bench.
Gavin Lockyer started in the front row with Shaun Hughes hooking and Jonathan Taylor on the other side. Huw Thomas played in an unfamiliar role for him at second row, with Matt Lewis and Marc Thomas equally unaccustomed to their back row positions, while Andrew Duggan played at No 8.
Dorian Davies and Ed Jenkins were reselected in the backs, with John Thurston moving up to the centre to partner George Jenkins.
With all the changes it was unlikely that the Builth supporters were going to see the fluency of play they had been used to of late.
Nelson kept Builth busy in defence and the Bulls attacks just failed at the final pass.
It wasn’t until half way through the first half that a touch of flair brought the first score. Dorian Davies chipped the defence and the chasing full-back managed the catch and lay the ball off to Ed Jenkins.
Nelson’s defence forced the ball into touch but the Bulls won the line out and a practiced move gave Geraint Jones the touch down to make it 5-0 at the break. The second half started in the same vein, the Bulls defending their slender lead and Nelson preventing them from further scores and trying, at the same time, to get one of their own on the counter attack.
Nelson had the most success from this strategy when Glenn Sawyer crossed under the posts, Danny Jones converting to make it 7-5 to the hosts.
As with all good cup ties, both sets of spectators were treated to a suspenseful final few minutes and the tables were turned with the Bulls now becoming the eager aggressors. Territorial advantage late on led to several penalties. One of these led to a yellow card for one of Nelson’s second row and Builth chose a scrum.
The Bulls eight-man unit pushed Nelson’s depleted pack over the try line and Huw Thomas got the vital touch, with John Thurston converting against the wind.
“The Unicorns put up a tremendous fight but tales of them overcoming the Bulls must remain in books of mythology,” said Builth press officer Roland Parker.
