Another selection of great match reports from the weekend's games.
Rydal School Under-16 10 v Colwyn Bay Under-16 46
Following report kindly supplied by Colwyn Bay RFC
One of the most eagerly awaited games of the season for this age group was played out on a beautiful Saturday morning where the score does not reflect how eagerly fought over the match was. As always at Rydal School the welcome and hospitality was superb (and according to the boys still the best pasties and iced buns in the whole of the WRU) were served at the end of a good game of Rugby.
As this game was early in the season Rydal took the opportunity to play some year 10 boys and also new boys to the school including some German students one of them Marvin playing his first game of rugby and doing the school proud. Being a Saturday The Bay were also running light due to football commitments and Ollie Roberts stepped up from the Under 15s playing at Hooker and had another good game.
The Bay got off to a quick start with Centre and Captain Harri Chinery Parkes chasing his own grubber kick through for a touchdown which he duly converted. The Bay quickly added to the score where Tom Sudlow Poole playing at number eight after the third phase of possession took a ball at pace from the ruck and went over for a superb try.
Rydal then came back into the game when the ball was dropped by the Bay, Rydal kicked the ball through for their very quick backs to outpace the cover defence for unconverted try. The Bay were galvanised by this score and Adam Stroud second row got on the end of a blind side move from Remy Sheil to burst over the try line. Tom Sudlow Poole then got in on the act again after taking a pass out of the tackle from Adam Stroud to go over in the corner.
Rydal then enjoyed a further spell of good possession and a well worked move by their backs nearly got Rydal over in the corner but this was only stopped by good defence by the Bay. From the resulting line out Rydal made pressure pay stealing the line out and a good forwards move drove the ball over the try line for an unconverted try to make it 10:22 at half time.
In the second half the Bay again got off to a flying start aided by a few missed tackles by Rydal let in tries from Kieran Smith Winger followed by Jacob Weigh playing at Prop today and Harri Chinery Parkes for the Bay to lead by 10:34 after 50 minutes. Rydal again never gave up and with some good aggressive forward play by Glen Davies as ever being strong in the tackle and some excellent tactical kicking by their Scrum Half Morgan Rydal were often in the Bay 22m zone.
Only top defensive tackling by the Bay backs Connah harding Jake Wilson and Scott Kane, kept the score board from ticking over in Rydal favour. The Bay finished strongly with Connah Harvey Flanker picking the ball up from the ruck and diving over and Prop Jacob Weigh putting a grubber kick in from 22m which Scott Kane Winger outpacing the Rydal defence to score in with a slide over try from 5 metre in the final play.
The score does not represent the effort put in out in by Rydal and if a few tackles had not been missed, and a couple of defensive errors related to laws had not occurred,, this would have been a very tight game. As such a rematch will occur again at Rydal School on Saturday 13th November 2012 kick off at 10.00am and with more game time and more experienced Rydal players being available this will be a tough match and one not to miss in the sporting calendar.
The Bay Man of the Match was Tom Sudlow Poole number 8 with notable performances also from Harri Chinery Parkes, Remy Sheil, Jacob Weigh,and Jake Wilson playing against his old school.
Stand out players today for Rydal were Morgan Scrum Half and Glen Davies Back Row with good potential being showing by Marvin the German Winger playing in his first game.
*****
BANGOR Under-13 5 V COLWYN BAY Under-13 53
Bay Captain Peter Jones led his team to a convincing victory at Bangor with a great display of open running rugby.
The first try came from a well worked lineout move allowing Joe Fisher to burst through the flailing defence to crash over to take the lead after five minutes.
Then after the Bay realised the potential outside with good distribution from Will Opie out through the hands of the centre which was quickly rewarded by a swerving run from half way from Sam Earl-Jones who had an excellent all round game in attack and defence.
The Bay grew in confidence from this point with some great handling resulting in Nye Michael finishing off a wonderful backs and forwards handling move to go under the posts.
Bangor then brought the pressure back onto the Bay with some feisty running though the centre which resulted in the ball being held on the Bays line. Sam Earl-Jones recovered the ball from good forward play and kicked the ball behind Bangors defence which was chased by Sion Edwards to pop the ball for Peter Jones who dribbled the ball eventually picking it up with a shimmy to score another try under the posts.
The Bay continued their ascendancy running in two further tries with a brilliant individual run from the halfway line from Peter Jones and a further try from Sam Earl-Jones after a wonderful handling move between the backs and forwards.
The Bay where 42 points up at half time and allowed Bangor back into the game ,The Bay forwards fronted up with some great tackling keeping the robust and eager Bangor players from their line with excellent driving play and tackling particularly from Ruby Roberts and Robbie Wilkes.
With ten minutes to go Bangor succeeded with a try in the corner which fired up the Bay to respond.
After losing initial ground back to their own try line the Bay took a series of driving runs through Olly Thomas, Carwyn Knights eventually being secured by Nicholas Young who ran half the pitch leaving flailing defenders in his wake whilst having the luxury of four Colwyn Bay players flanking him as he crashed over into the posts.
The Bay were not yet finished and from the kick off drove the ball straight into the heart of the Bangor defence to their 22 where Owen Rees embarked on a bullocking run breaking four tackles before gaining his first well earned try of his Colwyn Bay career.
The Bay can be pleased with this excellent display of running rugby and control and look forward to build on this with more consistent tackling technique which will be required for the coming season.
Player of the Match: Ruby Roberts for her all round attacking and defence game which continues to inspire those around her.
Try scorers: Sam Earl-Jones 3, Peter Jones 2, Joe Fisher, Nye Michael, Nicholas Young, Owen Rees.
The Coaches would like to sincerely thank all the parents for ensuring that the players are turning up on time which is proving to be invaluable in being able to train as a Team both on Friday nights and before the games.
*****
Colwyn Bay Under-9 4 v Ruthin Under-9 8
Sixteen players turned out for the match against Ruthin on a warm and sunny October morning. Some quick ball at the breakdown saw Ruthin take an early lead and then press home their advantage as too many Colwyn players failed to pass the ball and were turned over in the tackle. Tries by Isaac Lawrence and Joseph Burrows eased the flow, Colwyn going in 2-5 down at half time.
A fine move at the start of the second half – which involved six players all running and passing the ball - resulted in Lucas Candlish going over in the corner for a fine team try.
With quick thinking at the scrum allowing Steve Earl a pitch-length run to the try line, and direct running by Louie Cotton almost resulting in a further try, Colwyn came back strongly into the game. Had a few more final passes gone out to the wing, more tries might have followed.
Improving greatly on last week’s tackle count (30 tackles), a total of 43 tackles were made by the team, with Morien Brasington-Martinez top tackler (eight tackles).
In the follow-on game, an improved Colwyn team held their own in the first half, with tries scored by Morien Brasington-Martinez and Lucas Candlish, but went down 2-4 following a closely fought second half. Bryn Cox was top tackler, putting in six completed tackles.
*****
Bethesda 15 v Caernarfon 20
Following report kindly supplied by Caernarfon RFC
WRU Division One North
Bethesda will rue the fact that they were not able to open a fairly decisive lead during the first half of this Division 1 North Swalec league match. They were in control of territory and possession for most of the first half but were unable to penetrate the stern Cofi defensive line. Caernarfon were also thankful that Bethesda did not have their kicking boots, for apart from one successful penalty effort by Mathew Parry, following a high tackle, other probable three pointers were missed.
Caernarfon had relied on the thrusts of centre Dafydd Roberts to gain forward momentum but were believed that better was to follow as their scrum and lineout was functioning well. With only minutes of the half remaining, captain Rhys Evans took a quick tap penalty to the blind side, however, efficient recycling saw the ball brought wide, where forwards Joe Simpson and Ifan Jams showed deft hands and a surprising turn of speed to outfox the defence before releasing Lance Owen-Williams who came in off his wing to score. He also converted his own try.
The second half started well for the Cofis with a lineout drive gaining a good twenty meters before being stopped illegally. Up stepped Kelvin Morris, who had just joined the fray, to strike a clean penalty. Other forward thrusts from a well-worked lineout move saw Mathew Bohana gain valuable metres.
Such moves were curtailed a little when the visitor’s pack was reduced to seven following the sin binning of prop Simpson. This spurred Bethesda, who had been dogged throughout, to up their game and their never say die and battling spirit finally paid dividend when lively scrum half Carwyn Williams took a quick tap and had the strength to drive through a number of retreating Cofis to ground beneath the posts. Mathew Parry added the extras to tie the scores.
Caernarfon responded to peg Bethesda back with a Trystan Gwilym tramline break being initially responsible for putting Caernarfon on the front foot. Recycled ball was fed blind with second row Rhodri Sellars choosing wisely to release Joe Simpson who crashed over despite the attention of numerous defenders.
The conversion was narrowly missed but within minutes a kick and chase by competent and agile Meilyr Parry nearly brought reward, only for the referees intervention to deny the supporting attackers.
Second row Jams, who had been destructive in the line out, stole ball and set flanker Liam Leung off on a powerful midfield thrust. He was ably supported by centre Robert Farrer who was able to draw the cover and release wing Iolo Hughes who needed no second invitation to score in the corner.
Time meant that Bethesda, ten points adrift, could only fight to salvage a losing bonus point and to their credit they fought tooth and nail to gain the final score. Forward thrusts from one side of the field to the other culminated in captain and prop Paul Thomas finally ploughing over the line out wide to close the scoring.
Next Saturday the Cofis will travel to Nant Conwy for a match that could well define how the season will pan out for both clubs.
*****
Colwyn Bay Youth 5 v Denbigh Youth 56
The Bay youth suffered another heavy defeat against an improving Denbigh side who varied their tacticts during the game.
Using an accurate kicking game at the beginning of the match to gain territory they were quickly into their stride with early touchdowns, with a back division growing in confidence they exploited the gaps left by the home defence and they were creating tries from their own half.
The Bay were rewarded with a try for all their efforts from scrum-half Arthur Astbury who picked-up from the base of the scrum 10m from the opponents try-line and his strength and determination took him and a couple of tacklers over the whitewash.
The home side struggled up front but controlled the ball well when being pushed back in the scrum and won good ball in the line-outs to gain valuable possession with Niall Doherty impressive in open play.
The Bay’s man of the match was awarded to Richard Hillier who tackled courageously all afternoon.
*****
Llangefni 3 v 48 Pwllheli
(h/t 3-24)
WRU Division One North
Another warm sunny afternoon and another scintillating display from Pwllheli who demolished Llangefni with an 8-0 try-count on Cae Smyrna.
The first try came virtually from the kick-off when the visitors' backs combined well with slick and accurate passing which ended when centre Euros Thomas touched down between the posts with his first try for his team for almost two years. Scrum half Nic Butterworth converted.
It was followed within minutes by a try from top scorer winger Robin Hughes Jones' first of a brace. Fly half Carwyn Milburn of Llangefni converted a difficuilt penalty for an offside offence on twenty minutes just before an obligatory two minutes 'water break'.
When play resumed, Pwllheli went further ahead after much pressure on the home try-line when No 8 Huw Williams squeezed over to claim a try which Butterworth converted.
There was ten minutes of the half remaining when winger Arwel Thomas claimed the first of his brace of tries, and the visitors' bonus point try, but Llangefni held firm to end the half 24-3 down on the score board.
The second half started with a lot of pressure,for ten minutes, from the Llangefni forward players in the visitors' twenty-two especially when the Pwllheli fly half was yellow carded for 'killing play', but when the ball was eventually cleared up-field, it was Hughes Jones who reacted quickest and sprinted fastest to touch down under the posts.
Butterworh again converted. This was followed by Thomas' second try half way through the half and soon after another two minutes drinks stop, No 10 John Pugh broke through the home defence to score under the posts and again Butterworth converted. To complete the scoring with four minutes of the match remaining, captain Dafydd Anwyl claimed a pushover try.
Pwllheli face Bro Ffesiniog, high flying and in second position in the league, at home next week whilst Llangefni are away to Ruthin.
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