IT’S fair to say that Llangefni and Ruthin look to be well-matched sides this season.

For the second weekend running, the duo stood toe-to-toe in a close competitive encounter on Anglesey and on this occasion, it was Ruthin who came out on top.

In the WRU League Division One (North) clash seven days earlier, Llangefni secured a narrow four-point success.

Turning to Saturday’s tie in the WRU Plate and after a brief period of Ruthin pressure, Llangefni began to put some good play together.

With effective offloading and running on to the ball, they were challenging Ruthin’s defence.

After a quarter-of-an-hour, Mark Gray got through the visitors’ defence for a try, which was converted by Rhys Hughes.

Almost immediately, Ruthin had the opportunity to narrow the gap with a penalty goal attempt, but this went wide of the uprights.

Nevertheless, the Blues kept up the pressure and after some good phase play, wing Arfon Thomas collected the ball and ran over for a try in the corner.

Now trailing by just two points, Ruthin went straight back on the attack after restart and within a minute, centre Jordan Jones was over the Llangefni try line to give his side the advantage.

Fly half Nathan Jones slotted over the conversion and Ruthin were 12-7 to the good.

The home side responded and the game oscillated from end-to-end, before the whistle blew for half time with no further addition to the score.

Llangefni came out in the second half with all guns blazing and Ruthin had to muster all their defensive resources to withstand this onslaught.

Repeatedly, Ruthin cleared upfield, only to find themselves back in their own half on the defensive, but with excellent scrummaging and the all-round defensive effort by the Blues, the home side were denied a score.

After 70 minutes of play, an attempted penalty goal kick by the home side went wide and then, after a great Ruthin scrum against the head on their own 22, the Blues were awarded a penalty.

From the resultant lineout on halfway, the pack drove forward and Nathan Jones was released to charge into the home side’s 22.

He offload for centre Emyr Gwynedd to go over for the Blues’ third try, which Jones converted.

With a few minutes to go, Llangefni were back in the Blues’ 22 and this time the defence didn’t hold, with Greg Horseman went over the whitewash for a try, converted by Hughes.

However, it was all too late for Llangefni and the whistle blew for full time with Ruthin winning 19-14.

They now look forward to see who they will meet in the next round.