CROSS KEYS deserved better from this game at the Riverside Ground, Rumney, actually holding the lead as injury time approached, but having to watch the home side snatch a 32-22 points victory.

Cross Keys had the upper hand for most of the first half, and after thirty minutes, they led 9-0, in a game with a high penalty count, the three penalties by Gethin Worgan. The balance shifted when Keys lost scrum-half, Llyr Lane, to the sin-bin for not retiring at a penalty.

Rumney took advantage with a penalty try, after a rolling maul was pulled down close to the line, and three minutes later, prop, Gerald Cox, stormed 15 metres for a second try, both converted by Matthew Silva.

On the stroke of half-time, Worgan landed another penalty, but the score of 14-12 to Rumney was a bitter pill for Cross Keys to swallow.

Neither side could dominate in the second half, and the game did not catch fire until the 75th minute, when it looked as if Keys were going to pull the game round.

The penalties by Matthew Silva, and one from Worgan, had moved the score along to 20-15, but then Cross Keys went ahead with a penalty try, following sustained pressure on the Rumney line, and with Worgan once again converting, they led 22-20.

With a chance to close the game down, Keys missed touch from a relieving kick, Rumney moved the ball quickly across field and replacement centre, Craig Marshman scored wide out.

Silva could not convert, but he rubbed salt into Keys' wounds with a try under the posts. The resultant conversion was the last kick of the match, giving Rumney a 32-22 victory. Speaking after the game, a disappointed Richie Collins said: "We showed plenty of commitment, but had no luck today.

"The indications are that we are on the right track, and it was disappointing to lose a game that we could clearly have won."

*PICTURED: Despite scoring all his team's 22 points, Cross Keys' Gethin Worgan (right) could not stop his side losing to Rumney.