RUTHIN 10

BALA 16

DERBY honours went the way of the high-flying visitors from Maes Gwyniad.

Bala are seeking a top-two finish in Division One (North) this season and they boosted their hopes with a hard-fought win at local rivals Ruthin.

A good deal of gardening had to be done on the Ruthin pitch to make it playable after a considerable amount of rain on Saturday morning.

Despite the conditions, Ruthin and Bala put together an entertaining contest.

Bala had to withstand a good deal of early pressure from the Blues and they fell 3-0 behind following a successful penalty goal from fly half Nathan Jones after 12 minutes.

However, the visitors were always dangerous on the offensive and after a period of attacking play and a missed penalty goal, they managed to go ahead ahead via a try from prop Tomos Hughes, which was converted by fly half Owain Aled.

The Blues returned to the attack after this and they regained the lead on the back of a try from flanker Alex Pope with a few minutes of the first half left to play.

This was converted by Nathan Jones.

Again play swung to the home side’s half and the Blues had to defend well to prevent a further score before the whistle blew to end an evenly matched first half.

Shortly after the break, the visitors evened things up at 10-10 with a penalty goal and then after a further five minutes, the game was stopped because of an injury to a Ruthin player.

Following the restart, Bala went six points ahead courtesy of two successful penalty goals.

After defending well against a concerted Bala attack, the Blues returned to the visitors' 22.

For the last quarter-of-an-hour, Ruthin mounted wave after wave of attacks and although barely more than five yards from the try line for much of that time, they were repelled by Bala’s defence, albeit desperately at times.

Eventually, the ball was cleared to midfield and the whistle blew for full time with Bala running out 16-10 victors.

Despite the Blues' fine attacking play in the last quarter, they had to be satisfied with a losing bonus point.