Fixture

Match Report

Rhiwbina RFC 34  Porth Harlequins RFC 7

Saturday 5^th January 20194

Silent but deadly Rhys Fenton leads the way with a Man of the Match performance in attack and defence

On a perfect afternoon for rugby, Rhiwbina carried on from where they left off last week at Mountain Ash with a convincing bonus-point win against visitors Porth Harlequins.  Although they didn’t have it all their own way, as Porth came back strongly during the second half and it took some solid and committed defence to restrict them to one try.

James Griffiths put in a great kick in the opening minutes which saw Rhiwbina put Porth under early pressure in the scoreboard corner.  Rhiwbina were penalised and the dangerous Daniel Hitchings sped up the wing but he was tackled hard and limped away from the breakdown.  Rhiwbina got back into the Porth 22 and spread the ball right and Matt Williams scooped up a poorly directed pass and slipped out of a tackle to cross for the opening try in the corner.  Rhiwbina were placing Porth under great pressure in the scrums and the second row partnership of Bowden and Huntley stole a number of lineouts. Rhiwbina went further ahead from a scrum on their own 22 as Olly Golden picked up and burst through to the Porth 22 where he passed to Loren Quick who then slipped a final pass to Dafydd Williams who collected the ball one-handed and crossed near the posts, and Lewis converted. Lewis then made the best of a poor pass to kick Rhiwbina back into the scoreboard corner but there was an exchange of penalties and Porth cleared the danger.  Another great run by Dafydd led to a penalty in front of the posts which Lewis kicked to make it 15-0 for the Squirrels. A great tackle by Dafydd floored danger man Hitchings, and that was the last we saw of him as he limped off. Porth then put Rhiwbina under a lot of pressure as they tried to run the ball from all parts of the field. A superb line break by Jamie DeAbreu led to the third Rhiwbina try as the ball was passed right to Loren who put in a neat chip into the corner.  The Porth defence spilled the ball and Matt Williams was up to collect and touch down the ball for his second try, which Lewis converted superbly from the far touchline, to make the score 22-0 to the Squirrels at the break.

Porth continued to attack but found the Rhiwbina defence hard to penetrate and Chris Huntley stole another valuable lineout ball. Rhiwbina then knocked the ball on which led to a strange passage of play as Porth gained no advantage, but the ref only thought about it as Dafydd was speeding away to seemingly score his second try and he blew for the original knock on! Porth lost the ball in attack and Dafydd sped away on another break and passed inside to the ever-present Olly Golden who scored under the posts for the bonus-point try, which Lewis converted.  As mentioned, Porth continued to attack and were rewarded with an excellent corner try by Adam Eggar, converted by Jordan Evans from the touchline.

With the light fading both teams continued to attack and Rhiwbina were penalised continually for a variety of infringements. Dafydd made another great run out of defence and then Matt Williams collected the ball on the half way line.  His way to the line seemed blocked, but he had other ideas as he brushed off several would-be tacklers to make it all the way to the fire station corner for a superb individual try – and a hat-trick. Cameron Neal, on as a replacement, then charged into a Porth tackler and put pay to his afternoon. Rhiwbina had one last push, but the ball went loose and the ref blew for time.

With Rumney losing at Dinas Powys, this win took Rhiwbina into second place in Division One East Central.  We welcome Brecon, undefeated leaders of Division One East, to Caedelyn next Saturday in Round 4 of the WRU Plate Competition. It's sure to be a great game and we hope for a bumper crowd to cheer on Jamie DeAbreu and his Squirrels.