Fixture

Valuable bonus-point win for the Squirrels

The Rhiwbina eight were instrumental in this well-deserved victory over a determined Bwl side, who always made it difficult for the Squirrels. Apart from a first half penalty from Ryan Stacey, all the points came from the forwards, including three (YES THREE!) second half penalty tries from attacking scrums. Bwl themselves scored three tries, the last one coming in the ninth minute of additional time, with everyone, including the Bwl supporters, wondering where the hell the ref had had found all those additional minutes.

There was a very positive start from Rhiwbina with some strong individual runs. Bwl were penalised but Ryan’s penalty attempt went just wide.  Bwl also missed a penalty, but then Rhiwbina lost the ball in the middle of the field and the Bwl No8 scooped the ball up and showed a clean pair of heels to score under the posts and give them a 0-7 lead.  Rhiwbina’s dominance in the scrum was beginning to tell and they won the first of many against the head.  Morgan Kneath made some crunching tackles throughout the game and had to come off at one stage to have his nose repaired, but back he came with some great runs to put Rhiwbina in attacking positions. Dan Schwartz also led the way with some surging runs.  Kneath and James Griffiths seemed to have put Chris Williams over for a try, but he was held just short.  Dave Gilbert put in a great clearance kick to put Rhiwbina into the fire-station corner, but they were penalised yet again and the score remained 3-7 at the break.

The second half started with the same pattern of scrum dominance and Kneath crunchers, but yet again we were penalised to allow Bwl to clear.  At last the Squirrels found themselves in the scoreboard corner and gave the Rhiwbina faithful something to cheer about after all those barren weeks. Even the scoreboard operator was heard to praise the Rhiwbina pack, and they did him proud as they earned a penalty try from a scrum under the Bwl posts. But Bwl fought back, aided by a succession of penalty decisions against the Squirrels, and found themselves in the Rhiwbina 20 for the first time in the half, and they took full advantage scoring an excellent try under the posts to restore their lead to 10-14.

The returning Josh Davies came on to add some experience to the back line and Rhiwbina again worked their way to the scoreboard corner. A great drive by Chris Williams led to a 5 metre scrum, and Bwl disrupted the Rhiwbina drive and the ref signalled a second penalty try to put the Squirrels in front 17-14.  And back came the Squirrel pack with another forward drive, penalty and scrum and the ref awarded a hat-trick of penalty tries and showed a yellow card, so the lead now stood at 24-14.  But even now the Rhiwbina regulars were heard to say “ they can’t lose it from her can they?!”

Their fears were put to rest a few minutes later when Rhiwbina ran out of defence and there was Dan Schwartz to run 20 metres in for a superb bonus-point try to make it 29-14.  But Bwl weren’t finished, and neither was the ref as people looked at their watches and the darkening skies as Bwl worked their way into the Rhiwbina 20 and scored a third converted try. A Bwl forward was shown a red card after his second yellow card offence and Rhiwbina spent the remaining minutes where they wanted to be in the Bwl half, as the ref finally blew for time.

With no game again next week due to the WRU Plate quarter finals, our next game sees us travelling to Dinas Powys for a very stern challenge on 18^th January.