Fixture

Yet more last-minute changes required some re-jigging of the team, as Rhiwbina faced the challenge of visitors Mountain Ash who had got off to a convincing start with a home win last Saturday. Rhiwbina unveiled their superb newly designed programme , which had the regulars reading with interest whilst the visiting supporters took them home to work out the anagrams.

Rhiwbina started against a strong breeze and Mount began well and put the Squirrels under considerable pressure.  Mount looked threatening and they handled the ball impressively, but the Rhiwbina tacklers stuck to their task. What I hear you say – Mount passed it our beyond the outside half? Yes they did, unlike previous seasons, and their adventure was rewarded when Declan Conway kicked a penalty to give The Old Firm and early lead. However, the outcome of the game was changed in the next ten minutes, as Rhiwbina’s Kane Teear-Bourg scored the first of his four tries. Rhiwbina attacked from a lineout but the ball was stolen by Mount, but they dropped it and the ball was scooped up by Kane who scampered through to score his try under the posts, converted by Nick Saunders.  The game then ebbed and flowed in both directions with Olly Golden, who had a tremendous game, making strong runs and it took several Mount players to stop him every time.  Kane then made a great run out of defence taken on by Josh Trewartha to take the Squirrels into the scoreboard corner for the first time.  A break by Scouser almost led to a try for Ben Shariff, leading to a lineout for Rhiwbina. Kris Bowden won a clean catch, just as he and Chris Huntley did throughout the match, and Scouser put in a diagonal kick to Kane’s wing.  The Mount winger seemed  to have caught it, but he fumbled the ball and Kane snapped up the loose ball to scamper over for his second try.

The dependable Dafydd Williams then had a great run out of defence down the left wing and a Mount clearance kick was charged down by Josh Trewartha. Great passing by Rhiwbina saw Josh pass to Olly who made the break and delivered a clever overhead pass to Kane who raced over for his try hat-trick. This really fired up Mount, but they were pressurised into mistakes as Cameron Neal had some intimate discussions with his opposite prop – just as well half time came and they could both cool off.

From the restart Rhiwbina gained early possession but a loose pass was intercepted by Mount flanker Jarrod Morgan just outside his 20 metre line.  He pinned his ears back and showed a brilliant turn of speed to race all the way to score an unconverted try to put Mount back into contention. But they soon had the wind knocked out of their sails as Rhiwbina won a scrum against the head on the half way line.  Neat passing saw Kane get the ball just inside his own half and neatly round the defence to streak through for his fourth try, converted by Scouser. Another Kane run and pass saw Josh Moscardini pulled down just short of the line, whilst Cameron continued to pass the time of day off the ball with his opposite number! To their credit, Mount fought straight back with a well-worked try for Matthew Dixon, converted by Conway making the score 24-15 and leaving some of the regular watchers mumbling that we might blow this. But it was not to be as another great run by Olly saw the ball fed to Nick Saunders, who saw the gap, and raced through for a great try, which he converted. Rhiwbina won a Mount scrum and then Murph, who had just come on as a replacement, stole the ball which led to another great run by Olly, who fed the ever-dependable Josh Trewartha who crossed for Rhiwbina’s sixth try, converted by Scouser. Mount made one final effort, but the superb Rhiwbina defence held firm and referee blew for time.