Many thanks to all of you who have kindly sent in the following match reports - please keep sending them to gwcymru1@aol.com throughout the season
Please note an amended scoreline from previous reports:
WRU Division Two North
Llanidloes 3 v Dolgellau 19 (league/cup double header)
The following round-up is taken from the Welsh Rugby Union web-site:
In the North, Caernarfon ran in nine tries in their 59-0 home win over Llandudno to make it business as usual.
Caernarfon won the Division 1 North title by a clear 20 points in 2010/11, losing only one of their 18 games.
Newly promoted Bala notched a notable home win with a 20-17 defeat of Ruthin, outscoring them three tries to one, while Bro Ffestiniog marked their first competitive game as a full member of the WRU with a 23-3 home triumph over Llangefni.
Steve Lay, Tom James and Aaron Roberts grabbed the home tries, while all the points for the visitors came from Iwan Davies with a try, conversion and two penalties. The game was held up for 10 minutes in the second half when visiting hooker Iwan Evans susptained a suspected broken ankle.
Nant Conwy were another club with something to celebrate as they beat Mold 24-3 shortly after officially opening their new clubhouse. The home side were 14-0 ahead at half-time and added a third try after the break to complete a comprehensive victory.
There were no points in the first half at Pwllheli where Bethesda went ahead through a Mathew Parry penalty early in the second half. But the home side's response came through their powerful pack and a pushover try and conversion on the hour earned them the points.
In Division 2, Colwyn Bay picked up a bonus point in their 30-9 home win over Newtown, while Rhyl ran in five tries in their 36-6 triumph at Denbigh.
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WRU Division One North
Bala 20 v Ruthin 17
Ruthin were Bala's first opponents in their return to Division 1 North and a difficult game was expected and so it proved. The first quarter of the match was tense with both defences cancelling each other out but Bala were first to score when Rhydian Jones kicked a penalty (3-0) but this lead was cancelled out within a minute when Shay Tudor the Ruthin fullback kicked a penalty (3-3). On the 20 minute mark Bala scored their first try of the season as Dochan Roberts went over in the corner (8-3) but Rhydian missed the difficult conversion. Ruthin fought back and by half time they had taken the lead as Shay Tudor kicked a further 2 penalties to give Ruthin a 8 - 9 lead at the break.
Bala came out strongly in the 2nd half and they started to dominate in the forwards but they did not score until 12 minutes from the end of the game when they pushed the Ruthin pack back over their tryline for Arfon Rowlands to score a pushover try (13-9) and this try spurred Bala on but Ruthin were next to score against the run of pay when they intercepted some loose passing by Bala and the Ruthin winger ran the length of the field before being stopped by a good tackle from Owain Aled but Liam Gill the Ruthin hooker was on handto take the ball to score in the corner (13-14) and minutes later Shay Tudor kicked a further penalty to extend Ruthin's lead to 13-17. Bala then laid siege on the Ruthin tryline and they were awarded penalty after penalty as Ruthin constantly infringed in the scrum and Bala were bemused that they were not awarded a penalty try but then Ruthin took their two props off due to injury to make the scrums uncontested (an unsportmanship act as clearly after the game the props were not injured). Ruthin thought this would win the game for them but it only fired up the Bala team for one last effort and they were rewarded when with only 2 minutes left on the clock Ilan Rowlands with all the Bala forwards forcing him over the tryline scored the try and Rhydian Jones kicked the conversion (20-17) and Bala held on to win to give them a deserved win. This was a good team effort with the forwards dominating their Ruthin counterparts and the first team now look forward to playing Llangefni away next Saturday.
Squad: 1. Alwyn Jones 2. Gethin Williams 3. Mei Fon 4. Arfon Rowlands 5. Arron Jones 6. Ifan Hughes 7. Iwan Morris 8. Dochan Roberts 9. Ilan Rowlands 10. Rhydian Jones 11. Tudur Lynch 12. Gareth Macrae 13. Sion Lynch 14. Elgan Evans 15. Owain Aled 16. Brian Roberts 17. Alun Lloyd 18. Robin Owen 19. Moi Dafydd
WRU Division Two North
Denbigh 6 v Rhyl 36
Rhyl began their league season with the short trip down the Vale of Clywd to local rivals Denbigh and came away with a bonus points victory.
Rhyl's new head coach, Jim Waring had selected a youthful side containing several of last year's youth team and was rewarded by an excellent first half performance that saw Rhyl run in three tries and dominate the game throughout. A try from centre Rob Manley opened the scoring, converted by Rhodri Carlton Jones and was followed by further scores from wingers Kriss Wilkes and Jack Hughes, Rhyl's high tempo game and hard running proving too much for the hosts.
Whilst the second half was a more even affair, Rhyl never looked like losing their grip on the game and ran in two further tries from second rows Dale Blackmore and the veteran Ritchie Nelson. Conversions and a penalty from Carlton Jones brought the final score to 36 points to 6, and whilst the coaching stall were pleased with the result they felt there is a lot more to come from the squad this season.
Training at the Waen is on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7pm to 8.30pm. New players are always welcome.
Rhyl's next game is Saturday at home to Colwyn Bay, 2:30pm K.O
Wrexham 17 v Abergele 24
Abergele travelled to Bryn Estyn on Saturday to take on a much improved Wrexham side and to open their Division Two North account, and hoped that they could take the positives from their pre-season into their first match.
Gele started brightly, pressuring the bigger Wrexham pack and forcing their backs over their own line. After only a few minutes Si Hughes went over in the corner for an unconverted score. Abergele continued to press on the Wrexham line and eventually, after being held up on several occasions and the home side's full back desperately touching down over his own line Abergele were rewarded with another score from Chris Marsh, Gareth Evans adding the extras.
Immediately from the kick off, Abergele tore into the Wrexham defence and spent the majority of the remainder of the half camped in the Wrexham 22. After failing with several line-out attempts, Needham opted for the posts which Evans neatly converted to make the score 0-15.
This was probably the end of Abergele's domination as the game turned massively in favour of the hosts.
Si Hughes was then forced to leave the field after a stamp on his face, closely followed by fellow second row partner Mark Davies who had taken a nasty hit to the ribs. This resulted in Wrexham's pack now being considerably bigger, heavier and far more experienced.
The second half started quickly, both sides attacking and playing some quick flowing rugby. Wrexham denied Abergele scoring in the corner and immediately countered finding themselves within a few metres of the Gele line for the first time in the match.
After trading kicks and penalties for the next 10 minutes Wrexham's efforts were finely rewarded when a mix up in defence allowed the host's full back to cross near the posts. Easily converted to take the score to 7-15.
Some strong running from Daz Peters and Llion Mortimer kept Abergele's hopes of registering more tries alive, while for the most part of the second stanza Abergele's backs division were spectators.
Wrexham soon realised they had a scrummaging advantage and opted to scrum at every opportunity, they began to win their ball with ease and turned over the majority of the visitor's put ins. Driving the Gele pack back almost at will on their put-ins made life very difficult for stand in scrum half Alun Pritchard who had a torrid time trying to dig for a ball with his forwards being pushed over him.
Frustration was building and finally told when fly-half Callum Mattock was binned for a late tackle. Meaning Gethin Jones had to drop into the centre at set pieces leaving our pack even more exposed.
A clever turn over from Joe Lavin deep in his own half released the backs and allowed Ashley Wynne his first real touch of the ball. An infrigement at the next break down gave Gareth Evans a chance to give Abergele some breathing space which he calmly did from 35m.
Within minutes Wrexham were back on the score sheet after some good work from their pack allowed them to ship the ball to their winger who crashed over from short range in the corner, unconverted.
From the resulting kick off, Abergele caught and drove infield. The maul was collapsed and a Wrexham player red carded for illegal use of the boot. This just seemed to inspire Wrexham more as they drove down field and their crowd grew louder.
The next try was frustrating, though not against the run of play as the young referee positioned himself between the attacker and tackler. Abergele's complaints were not heard and it was rightly pointed out that the scorer should never have got that close to the try line in the first place.
This brought Wrexham within 4 points and Abergele to the panic stations. After a few minutes, and back to 15 men Abergele finally took some control. Good work from the backs lead to Wrexham being penalised for not rolling away, Evans finding touch aided by the wind. Another good catch and drive from a line-out forced Wrexham back deep in their own half, with no way over the line Abergele shipped the ball to the centre and charged for the line. Wrexham were again penalised for diving over the top of the ruck, Evans converting.
With only 1 minute remaining Wrexham charged down the field and could feel a draw was within their grasp, but it wasn't to be as solid defending eventually lead to a turn over which was happily kicked to touch.
Captain James Needham had to play the last 10 minutes with broken ribs as there were no more substitutions, and is out for the next 8 weeks.
Abergele's next game is away to COBRA 10th September.
Machynlleth 3 v COBRA 19
Cobra kick started the new season with a fantastic win away to always dangerous Machynlleth. Played in appalling conditions the game was heavily reliant on the efforts of the pack who didn't disappoint been totally dominant in the scrum whilst providing the always dangerous Alwyn Williams with willing runners. Alwyn and LLew already appear to have formed an understanding at half backs and had the weather been better would surely have further exploited the cobra forwards domination of the set piece. Weather conditions greatly hampered flowing rugby and Cobra led 6 nil thanks to two penalties kicked by Llew following infringements by Mach players which resulted in a yellow card for killing the ball under their posts.
Mach got off the mark with a penalty of their own but another penalty again resulting in a yellow card saw Llew stretch Cobra's lead to 9 - 3 . Whilst positioned under the Mach posts Captain and Number 8 Aled Davies who in the pouring rain failed to notice a green shirts Mach player on the floor and stood on him resulting in a 10 minute recuperation period on the side line.
Cobra weren’t to be denied and after more strong running found themselves under the Mach posts and this time a refreshEd Davies barged over again Llew converting the score. When the final whistle sounded Cobra were very happy with an excellent performance from a young side playing in some very testing conditions. Special mention must go to Redders for his length of the field chase that cut down the try bound Mach centre metres from the Cobra line, effort that summed up the entire teams performance.
Jones Jones Evans Evans Davies Evans Bright Davies Williams Williams Vaughan Roberts Jones Jones Davies, Subs Astley Pryce Williams Oakley
Bangor 0 v Welshpool 18
Having played no pre-season warm up games Bangor were certainly rusty in the first half when all the points were scored. Playing against the wind and rain Bangor went behind early on giving away a soft try to Ryan Griffiths converted by Daly Jones. They improved slowly but went further behind to a well worked try on the right wing by Terry Breeze. With the half inexplicably stretched to 50 minutes, the visitors added two penalties in the extra time.
Remarkably, after the turn around Welshpool never got into Bangor's half of the field once yet Bangor were unable to score any points despite destroying the visitors scrum and much improved lineout jumping. They came within inches of grounding the ball several times but the visitor's dogged defence was just too good.
The alternative view...
For the first time since January 2007, Welshpool kept their opponents from scoring a point to secure an 18-0 victory to open their Division 3 North season.
Ironically, the 2007 fixture in question was also away at Bangor, who were held out despite dominating the second half territorially, and could not capitalise on the advantage given by the strong wind at their backs.
Welshpool opened their account early in the game, when hooker Ryan Griffiths capitalised on a charge from second-row Jamie Evans to score underneath the posts, with outside-half Daley Jones converting.
A second try soon followed, with winger Terry Breeze scoring in the corner, with this try remaining unconverted.
Despite continuing to pressure the Bangor line, Welshpool were forced to settle for two penalties, giving them an 18-0 advantage at half time.
With Bangor playing with the wind behind them, they began to pressure in the second half, but found the Welshpool defence to be well-organised, and the conditions led to many spillages and a stop-start affair.
A yellow card to prop Ben Aldis caused Welshpool to spend 10 minutes playing a man down, but even then, they looked unlikely to concede a try, and held their hosts out for a well-earned victory.
Welshpool: Ben Aldis, Ryan Griffiths, Ben Astley, Dan Archer, Jamie Evans, Gareth Gregory, Jake Best, Jack Brady, Tom Davies, Daley Jones, Anthony Scanlon, Andrew Thomas (C), Chay Bowles, Terry Breeze, Steve Cross
Replacements: Nick Larder, Barry Williams, Sean Jones, Sam Ward
Tries: Ryan Griffiths, Terry Breeze
Conversion: Daley Jones
Penalties: Daley Jones (2)
Yellow Card: Ben Aldis
Llangoed 0 v Shotton Steel 96
SHOTTON Steel started the season in emphatic fashion in shocking conditions at Llangoed.
After a strong pre-season with wins over Wallasey and Denbigh, Shotton were looking to make an early mark in Division Three.
With heavy rain and blustery wind affecting the match the visitors took control from the off with strong running from flanker Louis McDonnell and centre Daniel Lynskey a feature of the opening exchanges.
Last season’s encounter at Llangoed finished 0-0, but it was clear from the start this time it would be anything but that.
With the home side struggling for numbers, Shotton were able to put them to the sword from the get go.
McDonnell and Lynskey proved almost unplayable at times as they bagged five tries a piece.
Scores from winger John Ketland, Stu Harris and Dicky Grace added to the win, with the referee opting to end the game 20 minutes from time due to its one-sided nature.
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