Fixture

Rhiwbina 28  Gilfach Goch 15

Barely twenty seconds had gone before Rhiwbina scored their opening try.  The regulars were still arriving, Mr Twitter wasn’t even watching, the scoreboard operator was still moaning about the last game (nothing new there),our older supporters hadn’t tuned in their hearing aids, the touch-judge was still scratching his bum and there was still a queue at the coffee shop when Gowch missed the Rhiwbina kick-off, the ball bounced up nicely into the hands of Olly Golden who stormed through to score the try, and Loren converted to make it 7-0 to the Squirrels. However, to their credit, Gowch fought back and within five minutes had levelled the score with a converted try of their own. Rhiwbina then took the lead as Loren kicked a penalty.

Gowch were warned by the ref for persistent infringements at the breakdown, but it was Rhiwbina that was penalised next allowing Gowch to level the scores with a penalty. Good Rhiwbina handling saw Matt Williams pulled down just short of the scoreboard corner.  Two Kane T-B runs out of defence saw Rhiwbina again on the attack, and there were several bursts from Jamie Dabs.  Rhys Morgans seemed to be everywhere both in attack and especially in defence.  A more patient approach by the Squirrels saw Gowch penalised again and Loren kicked it to take them into a 13-10 lead. Unfortunately the restart was dropped, leading to a second try for Gowch and a 13-15 half time lead for the visitors.

Jamie and Rhys M again led the way in the second half, with Jamie requiring several Gowch defenders to bring him to ground. With Gowch defending a scrum in the fire station corner, the Rhiwbina pack turned up the heat and destroyed the Gowch scrum.  The ball went loose and Rhys Morgans snapped it up and fed Olly who crossed for his second try. Then came the best piece of play in the game as the ball passed through several pairs of Rhiwbina hands only for the final pass to go slightly forward and deny KT-B a certain try.

Rhiwbina were now dominating the game and Gowch were penalised and Loren slotted over his third penalty to make it 21-15. From another penalty, line out and forward drive the ball was spun left and then back right and the reliable Pat Ware crossed in the fire station corner, and Loren converted superbly.  A great tackle by Rhys Morgans stopped a dangerous Gowch attack but, try as they could, Rhiwbina couldn’t get that bonus point try, despite Gowch having two men yellow carded in the closing minutes.

It was good to get to winning ways in the league, and we still have three fixtures remaining in the league, as well as our Mallett Cup Final showdown on Saturday 11^th May at the Arms Park.  It’s still not certain who we will play in the final, as the semi final ended with Rumney seemingly winning but the game ended in a contentious farce – watch this space!!!