Following report kindly supplied by Dolgellau RFC.
Dolgellau and Bala kicked off the new season with a cracking contest, on a balmy night under the Marian floodlights, with Bala wing, Elgan Evans clinching it with two quickfire tries with less than 15 minutes remaining. This immediately after Dolgellau were reduced to 13 on field players with two yellow cards in quick succession, and having led the whole match.
Bala indiscipline in mid field saw Dolgellau centre, Henri Roberts, split the posts from over 40m to give Dolgellau a 3-0 lead after quarter of an hour. He added a similar magnificent effort on the half hour mark to make it 6-0. However these long range penalties were as close as they could come as the visitors held an iron grip on the set pieces.
But Dolgellau scrapped magnificently at the breakdowns limiting the visitors any quality time in the red zone. However, after both skippers, Rhys Roberts and Illan Rowlands, were given a stern taking to from ref Mike Jolley regarding a flareup amongst the forwards, and six minutes into stoppage time, Bala hooker Garan Davies barged over in the last action of the half. 6-5 to Dolgellau at the interval.
A minute into the second period, Henri Roberts’ penalty came off an upright, and centre Owain Thomas almost squeezed through. Bala were penalised and Roberts added his 3rd penalty to make it 9-5.
Bala stand-off Llion Jones slotted a penalty to bring the visitors within a point, but ten minutes in, Bala indiscipline at the breakdown again, saw Henri Roberts put over another huge effort from near 40m to ease Dolgellau 12-8 ahead.
It seemed unlikely that Dolgellau could hang on for the remaining half hour, and after
both their half backs, Jack Roberts and Dafydd Roberts, saw yellow within a minute with 12 minutes remaining. Enter Bala wing Elgan Evans, ferreting over for his first following a typical Bala drive. Stand off Llion Jones added the conversion to put the visitors ahead for the first time at 12-15.
A minute after the re-start, Dolgellau were level. Henri Roberts with another huge penalty, his 5th of the match. However Dolgellau joy was also cut short. Bala hooker Endaf Jones gathered a big Dolgellau clearance, and Bala counter attack saw Elgan Evans round the cover defence to score wide out on left. Stand off Llion Jones converted to seal it for the visitors 15-22.
Referee : Mike Jolley
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