DINBYCH 2NDS 7

PONTARDAWE 30

DINBYCH 2nds' excellent run in a national competition is at an end.

They welcomed Pontardawe to Caeau Les Phillips in the fourth round of the WRU Shield on Saturday, being one of only two North Wales clubs remaining in the competition.

The kick-off was slightly delayed due to the visitors' bus breaking down.

Fortunately, the tie was able to proceed, with the visitors winning the toss and electing to attack down the slope.

The first 15 or so minutes was rather tense, with both sides guilty of handing errors which disrupted the flow of the game.

However, it was not long before Pontardawe’s gargantuan pack began to dominate possession and build a platform from which to launch their attacks.

This created one try for centre Steffan Rees, and he scored another from an interception from a rather flat pass in the Dinbych backline.

Dinbych fought back hard up the slope and centre Toby McAlpine went close to scoring, only to be brought down by an ankle tap.

One more try for Pontardawe followed from Mike Hodges and with the conversions and penalties, the half-time score was 25-0 to the visitors.

The interval brought a change in fortunes for the hosts and their cause was helped by a yellow card for a high tackle by the visiting number eight.

Continued pressure by the Dinbych pack led to repeated drives for the try line.

Captain James Rowse was rather harshly denied a try as the referee could not clearly see a grounding of the ball.

The determined Dinbych pack continued to press and stalwart prop Roger Clayton went over from short-range to bag his first try of the season. Pontardawe had to dig deep and defend to avoid a further score and in the final 10 minutes, they sealed the victory with a well-crafted try.