Fixture

MATCH REPORT

Saturday 19^th January 2019

Rhiwbina RFC 14   Llantrisant RFC 13

Irish eyes smiling on Rhiwbina as Sean Monaghan puts in a massive Man of the Match performance

Rhiwbina got back to winning ways after the disappointment of last week’s Plate defeat, but only by the narrowest possible of margins. I'm sure Rhiwbina will carefully analyse their performance after a less than impressive but vital win, but Llantrisant played really well and frustrated Rhiwbina in all aspects of play.  Sean Monaghan epitomised the effort put in by the Rhiwbina team which had several enforced changes from last week’s bruising encounter with Brecon.

Rhiwbina spent the first ten minutes firmly planted in the scoreboard corner, but Llantrisant thwarted their every effort to cross for a try.  Time and again they stopped the Rhiwbina drive from the  lineout, their tactics more than frustrating the home spectators.  Anyway, Llantrisant held out and then went upfield and scored an excellent try converted by John Williams to take the lead against the run of play.

However, as they always do, Rhiwbina fought back straight away as Dafydd put in a superb kick back to the scoreboard corner (it was very busy in that corner, so it kept the scoreboard operator awake). A Llantrisant clearance kick was well caught by Dafydd and he passed to Kane T-B who jinked and weaved his way over for a typical try, converted by Nick Saunders to make it 7-7.  Dafydd again attacked up the left wing; Loren intercepted a pass; Scouse put in several great penalty kicks to the corner; Sean and Kris Bowden did great work in the lineout and in open play; Josh T had a great burst through the middle – and another forward drive was pulled down a few feet short of the line – but no penalty!  So it remained 7-7 at the break.

Llantrisant went ahead with a John Williams penalty but then Rhiwbina got themselves into the fire station corner.  Josh T had another great drive and the gap opened up for Scouse who sliced through to score under the posts and he converted. At last Olly had a great run from a scrum but the pass to K T-B went astray and the opportunity was lost.  Scouse was then injured, and Loren moved to outside half, where he steadied the ship for the closing minutes.  Lantrisant cleared their lines and Williams kicked a penalty to make it 14-13 with ten minutes to go. Rhiwbina spent most of that time in the fire station corner and when Llantrisant did have a line out, Sean and Kris Bowden stole key throw ins. Rhiwbina went for the line out drive and this time, and at long last, a Llantrisant player was shown a yellow card, shortly after followed by another one as they pulled the driving maul down as it was about to cross for try – the Rhiwbina crowd thought a penalty try might have been awarded.

Anyway Rhiwbina spent the closing minutes in the same corner and held on for a hard-fought win and another four points against very committed and determined opponents, who will give any team a hard time from now on until the end of the season.