RHAYADER handed Brecon a fright before succumbing to a 22-17 defeat in a pre-season friendly.

Rhayader opened the scoring through a kick and chase by Haydn O'Reilly who also converted.

Brecon were the stronger team throughout and kept the ball for longer period and ended up scoring a close range try through Howell Morgan.

Rhayader were resilient however and a Brecon mistake gave Rhayader a quick turn over ball and from a kick inside his own 22 Dylan Jones chased and hacked on again to score a fantastic individual try to put Rhayader 12-5 up.

Towards the end of the second quarter Brecon had Rhayader pinned inside their half and a clever Martyn Jones interception allowed him to run in under the posts and this was converted by Dan Edwards to make it 12-12 at half-time.

After half time Brecon kept the ball better and tries from Alan Taylor and Huw Morgan gave them a 10 point lead.

Rhayader dug in though and narrowed the deficit to just five points with a well-worked team try well finished off by Matt Samuel after good work by Dylan Jones and Ben Gaskell to make it 22-17 going into the final quarter.

Brecon saw several tries disallowed but it had been Rhayader on the attack when the final whistle sounded with the home side holding out by five points.