Rugby Union: Minnows swamped: Llanelli 100 Ynysybwl 0

CUP MATCHES are renowned for upsets. This game was never likely to be one of them and the Swalec Cup holders marched on confidently into the sixth round thanks to 16 tries.

Not that the century of points was a fair reflection on the effort put in by 'Bwl. The league leaders from Division Four East gave a good account of themselves and deserved a better fate.

Two moments in particular were cruel in the extreme. In the first half the visiting skipper, Stuart Lloyd, hit an upright with a 25-metre penalty and then promptly found himself facing a conversion at the other end as the Scarlets ran out of defence to score.

Then in the second period a half-break from a scrum just inside the Llanelli half gave the 'Bwl their best attacking platform of the game. They lost the ball, however, and Llanelli scored at the other end.

It was that kind of day. The cup holders, fresh from an ignominious defeat in the Premier Division at Neath earlier in the week, were in no mood for favours.

They ran in six tries in the first half and then followed that up with 10 in the second, with hooker Marcus Thomas revelling in the free-flowing action. Thomas, brought in from Pontypridd to act as cover for club captain Robin McBryde, thrilled everyone by scoring three tries. No sooner had he left the action after an hour than McBryde maintained the momentum with two tries of his own.

In fact it was McBryde who finally broke the hearts of the faithful Ynysybwl supporters when he crossed at the right corner for the try which brought up the century.

Ynysybwl used to be at the heart of the mining industry in Wales, supporting the Lady Windsor Colliery which at its height employed 12,000 men. Nowadays the village population is around 4,000. But every man, woman and child from the village can feel proud of the effort put in by Lloyd and his players. Don't look at the scoreline, understand the effort and pride of the minnows' effort.

Llanelli: B Hayward (R Moon, 73); W Proctor (capt), S Finau (N Boobyer, 61), N Davies (C Warlow, 52), D Williams; S Jones, A Thomas; M Madden, M Thomas (R McBryde, 61), J Davies, V Cooper, T Copsey, D Hodges, H Jenkins, I Boobyer.

Ynysybwl: P Hatch; M Lloyd, S Lloyd (capt), A David (J Arnold, 59), L Lewis (J Saunders, 7-10); G Davies (J Arnold, 37-40), J Lloyd (J Saunders, 74); G Ward (N David, 68), A Pickering (M Rowlands, 63), J Williams (M Powell, 41), G Jones, N David (K Bedgood, 49), T Rice (C Morgan, 41), J Reed, S Rakei (P Brown, 53).

Referee: C Saunders (WRU).