Ruthin took a squad of 29 players to the first of their pre-season friendlies at Wirral team Old Anselmians. All 29 players played with team changes after every 20 minutes. The home team started strongly and for the first 10 minutes all play was in Ruthin’s half and although the Blues defended well the Anselmians pressure was eventually awarded with an unconverted try. From the restart the Blues stepped up their game and after a great tackle from no 8 Marc Lloyd curtailed a break into Blues territory, full back Mike Evans won the chase for a loose ball in his own half, kicked forward and collected the ball for a fine individual try. After further fine play by the Blues centre Nathan Jones grabbed another try which fly half Phyl Roberts converted, putting the Blues 12-5 ahead after the first quarter. The second quarter belonged to Ruthin and they put on a further 14 points without reply with tries from Matthew Tetlow and Jason Humphries with Roberts converting. The last two quarters became more attritional with defences dominating. In the third quarter the Blues came under sustained pressure for virtually the whole 20 minutes and defended well against a vigorous Anselmians attack and after a series of scrums and line outs a few yards from the Ruthin line the home side grabbed an unconverted try. The fourth quarter was spent mostly in the home side’s half but the Blues could not capitalise on their territorial advantage against good defence. Eventually it was Anselmians who got a further try at the end of the match which finished 25-15 to Ruthin . This was a competent and feisty performance by Ruthin under their new coaching regime and it was good to see players coming through from the youth team making a significant impact on the game.