| On a windy evening in Ruthin the blues were out to try and wrest the title from Nant Conwy and Pwllheli were doubtless out to avenge their last minute defeat by Ruthin at home earlier in the season. The first ten minutes of play was almost all in Pwllhelis half of the field with Ruthin clearly aiming to get the first points on the board. But in fact Pwllheli went ahead after a kick downfield led to a Ruthin lineout on their 22 followed by a scrum which Pwllheli won and their player dummied past the Ruthin defence to score a good try between the posts which they easily converted. Ruthin continued their onslaught but it wasnt until 2 Pwllheli players were sin-binned in quick succession that Ruthin managed to get across the line when centre Harri Morgan fed full back Kyle Davies for the first try. Ruthin showed their intentions by not wasting time going for the conversion and within a few minutes went further ahead after Morgan set up centre Gethin Hughes for a great try. Pwllheli had an opportunity to level the scores with a penalty goal but were unsuccessful. The game continued with Ruthin trying to break down a resilient Pwllheli defence but it held and at half time the score was 10-7 to Ruthin. Almost straight after the restart a good run by prop Clwyd Williams set wing Mike Stubbs up for Ruthins third try. Ruthins pressure continued with skipper Joe Palmer leading by example but a missed pass was intercepted by a Pwllheli back who ran the length of the field to score their second try which they did not convert. Try four came from Stubbs after some good phase play and Ruthin had their bonus point but now half way through the second half getting another nine tries against robust Pwllheli was becoming a remote possibility. Ruthin were not giving up however and their pressure led to further infringements by Pwllheli and a further two yellow cards. Ruthin took advantage of their opponents only having 13 men with a fifth try by Kyle Davies making the score 25-12 to Ruthin. The whistle blew with no further score. Ruthin can be proud of a great season finishing second on equal points to Nant Conwy, their highest end of season league position since returning to play in North Wales. They can take much credit from having lost fewer games than any other team in the league including Nant and with a young side can look forward to a good season next year in a more competitive 10 team league. |
