THE champagne was flowing at Y Morfa after Caernarfon regained the Division One North title with a thumping win at home over Mold
Team picture and report reproduced by kind permission of Daily Post
THE champagne was flowing at Y Morfa after Caernarfon regained the Division One North title with a thumping win at home over Mold and Nant Conwy slipped up at Colwyn Bay.
With a few minutes still left on the clock the Cofis were celebrating the title after hearing of Nant’s shock defeat at struggling Colwyn Bay, and having eased to a comfortable 48-11 win over one time challenges Mold.
A delighted head coach Ieuan Jones said: “It wasn’t really expected to be honest, because we all thought Nant would get the win over Colwyn Bay.
“But with a few minutes before the end our players were all jumping around and celebrating because we had someone at Colwyn Bay, who rang to tell us the final score, so we knew we had won the league.
“I had to go over to some of the Mold players after the game to explain that we’d heard from the Colwyn Bay game, and that it wasn’t just that we’d beaten them.”
Caernarfon have narrowly missed out on the title for the past two seasons, each time finishing behind Nant Conwy, but Jones was adamant this was the culmination of five years worth of work at the club.
“We’ve got a big squad of players here,” he added. “And everyone has chipped in over the season.
“All the lads have worked really hard, but this is not just reward for this season, it’s five years worth of work.
“We’ve got a really good junior and youth section here at the club and I think if you look at the clubs who have been up at the top over the last few years, the likes of Mold, Ruthin and Nant, they’ve all got good youth systems. It’s about keep that continuity, that conveyor belt of players.”
A brace of tries each from captain Rhys Evans and full-back Lance Owen, as well as tries from Dylan Owen and Iolo Hughes ensured the win with fly-half Kelvin Morris kicking six conversions.
Mold replied with a try from Steve Quinton, who also added two kicks to notch all the visitors points.
Jones added: “It was a really good game, to be fair to Mold they came here and played their part in the match.
“They put us under a lot of pressure early on and had us under the cosh a bit in the opening exchanges.
“But all we conceded in that time was one penalty, and to be fair our defence has been really good all season.
“We came back at the after that and got a bit more confidence after our first try and went on from there.
“Iolo (Hughes) had a really good game, he only came in late for Gwil Hendy who played last week against Nant without knowing he had broken his wrist.”
Jones added: “We’ve still got three games left in the season now, so this will give us a really good chance to give a few of the young lads from the youth a game.
“We’ve got some really good youngsters coming through and this will now give us a chance to have a good look at them.”
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