Fixture

Ruthin played North Wales Cup holders Nant Conwy in the first match of the season at Cae Ddol on Saturday.  The visitors started strongly immediately putting the Blues under pressure in their own 22 and were awarded with a try by Morgan Dafydd in the first few minutes and converted by Caron Davies.  Ruthin responded but game was interrupted when Ruthin centre Daf Lloyd broke his leg.  After the restart play was pretty evenly matched with some good periods of play by the Blues but again injury marred the half when flanker Mike Roberts was carried off with a knee injury.  The Blues good phase play eventually paid off and centre Emyr Gwynedd went over the whitewash for a try converted by fly half Lewis Isaac.  Nant widened the gap again with an unconverted try by Robert Parry almost immediately and after Ruthin missed an opportunity to reduce the arrears with a penalty goal kick the sides went in with Nant 12-7 in the lead and all to play for for both sides.  Ruthin started the second half as they finished the first but after a Nant kick up field half bounced well for them Rhys Jones nipped over for their third try converted by Davies.  Jones try started a torrid patch where Nant ran in a further 3 tries in under 20 minutes, 2 of which Davies converted.  Ruthin looked rather ragged in this patch as they tried to stem the visitors’ onslaught and were desperately trying to defend their line when a third Ruthin player, flanker Gareth Morgan, suffered a nasty injury with a gash to the head and concussion.  There was no further play after this last injury and Nant won deservedly 38-7.  A plucky Ruthin team were left nursing their wounds after their worst trio of injuries in one match for many a season.