By David Parsons
The celebrations in Llandovery spilled over from their momentous Indigo Premiership play-off final win over Cardiff on Sunday night into Monday and could well gone on deep into this week as the whole of the mid Wales rugby community comes to terms with the 24-8 triumph at the Arms Park.
The party is likely to stay around town, although you wouldn’t be surprised if the players are snapped in Las Vegas!
It was the biggest win in the club’s 145 year history, overtaking their WRU Challenge Cup victories in the Welsh capital in 2007 and 2016.
The one common denominator across those three epic occasions is current head coach Euros Evans.
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He was a player back in 2007 and then coach in 2016 and 2023. The way in which he prepared his side for their first Premiership title was out of the top drawer of coaching.
Here is how he and some of his players reacted to a performance that will go down in legend at the home of one of the founder members of the Welsh Rugby Union, making them the first west Wales club to be crowned the best team in Wales since Llanelli won the title in 2011.
EUROS EVANS – head coach
“I told the players that these are special days in their lives and to make the most of it. In big games you want your big players to turn up and put in big performances. The likes of Lee Rees, Adam Warren and Jack Jones did exactly that.
“Then players like Ioan Hughes and Jamie Hughes showed their quality and the rest of the team followed suit. Ioan was cool, calm and ruthlessly efficient at outside half, while Jamie did what he always does at loose head prop – put in an 8/10 performance.
“Thee celebrations went on long into the night and carried on after our replacement scrum half, Dafydd Land, had completed a university exam on Monday morning. Then we’ve got our presentation night on Friday.
“Next season the target will be to try to do it all over again. As Ronan O’Gara said after La Rochelle’s epic win in Dublin in the Heineken Champions Cup final, we want to build a dynasty and create a legacy that keeps us up there with the likes of Cardiff and Newport and ensures we are competitive every season.”
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LEE REES – two try hero named as Man off the Match
“I am so proud of the boys, it was an unbelievable performance. We had a fast start and we caught Cardiff a bit cold. But we just kept coming and were relentless.
“I am not surprised with the way we then defended because we dug in and just wanted it more than they did.
“I have been at this club since 2009 and it has always been a goal of mine to win this trophy and become champions. We have played 24 games to win this – and we have won most of them, so it feels like a nice reward.”
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JACK MAYNARD – back-to-back title winner having won with Cardiff in 2022; kicked 14 points
“It’s amazing and I’m over the moon! We knew it was going to be tough because Cardiff have 15+ great players. We managed the game superbly, built ourselves into the contest and felt comfortable throughout.
“They had to chase the game in the end because we had bult a cushion. Cardiff had an unbelievable season and it must be difficult for them to lose out in the play-offs. I’m not a great fan of the system, but we dug in and stuck at it.
“We felt we had had dominance over them this season and we beat them on their own patch as well in the end. We thought we might had been up against it up front, but the forwards put in a huge shift.
“We’ve been very comfortable behind the scrum all season and our defence was dominant and well organised.”
ADAM WARREN – ex-Wales international in first season back at hometown club
“It meant a lot to us and there was a lot of emotion with the group. We had never won the league and we wanted to make a bit of history. We were at the top of our game and maybe it was one game too many for Cardiff.
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