RGC put on a late surge as they ran Welsh Premiership high-flyers Llandovery close in a 25-24 defeat.

The boot of Jack Maynard opened the scoring with a penalty for the Drovers, which sparked RGC into a good spell in the game.

They had ball in hand and attacked in the right places, but crucially they couldn’t get any points on the board.

Rhys Tudor got on the end of a grubber kick but couldn’t get the ball down for the try. Sam Earl-Jones was next to put in a run before he was smothered by the Llandovery defence.

The visitors extended the lead when they moved the ball wide and Osian Davies ran in at the corner for a try.

Llandovery were punching holes straight through the RGC defence and they made some easy yards with ball in hand.

Soon after, centre Aaron Warren scored, with Maynard adding the extras.

As the half-time whistle was looming, RGC worked their way to the line and it ended with a penalty from Sam Rogers to make it 15-3 at the break.

It was clear in the second half that RGC had upped the energy and they chased the visitors down as soon as they had the ball.

Despite this, Llandovery extended the lead with another try after they found some space and Jamie Hughes capitalised with the score, setting up a simple Maynard conversion.

RGC finally got a try when Afon Bagshaw went over and Sam Rogers converted, although this felt like a consolation score.

Then, Maynard slotted over a penalty to make it 25-10 to Llandovery with 10 minutes to go.

Then the game turned on its head.

RGC got the maul going before replacement Efan Jones popped up with the ball to run in for a try and Morgan Bagshaw hit the extras.

Scrum-half Jones was the game-changer and two minutes later, he broke from his own half to rip open the field before passing to another replacement Harri Evans to run in for the try.

Sam Rogers' conversion closed the game to one point.

RGC sensed the win was a real possibility and went through some good phases, with some exciting offloads to edge up the field.

The excitement built in the stands but RGC just fell short at the final whistle.

Head coach Ceri Jones was left frustrated after the game.

He told the RGC website: “It’s frustration with our own performance more than anything, and the difference between the first and second half.

"In that opening 40 we lacked urgency, and you could see that from the five balls we got turned over with. We were sloppy and lacked speed going into contact.

"The game got away from us and left us with too much to do. Credit to the boys for getting back into the game and putting us in a position where we could have won it.

"We have seen the slow starts at times this season, where we are reactive and don’t start getting into the game until the opposition are on the front foot."