DINBYCH 15

CAERNARFON 15

ALTHOUGH this fiercely contested North Wales Cup tie ended in a draw, Dinbych made further progress in the competition as a result of them outscoring Caernarfon by three tries to two.

Both teams showed remarkable skills to overcome the atrocious conditions as the game went on.

Dinbych started with the advantage of the wind at their backs and as a result, they dominated the first quarter territorially, even though there was a tremendous tussle for possession especially in the forwards.

They opened the scoring with an outstanding try by full back Gruff Roberts, who took advantage of possession from a maul 30 metres out near the right hand touchline.

He then cut infield on a diagonal run beating a clutch of defenders to cross wide out on the left for a try which he just failed to convert with the kick rebounding from the nearest upright.

Dinbych continued to have the better of the game territorially and increased their lead from a maul just outside the visitors' 22.

Following a powerful drive by number eight Robin Williams, the ball was released to the midfield with slick handling by Garin Roberts, Tom Seddon and Gruff Roberts creating the overlap for left wing Kieran Bonar to go over for a try.

Gruff Roberts was again unlucky with his conversion as this time his kick rebounded from the far upright.

Caernarfon responded well and they now had the better of the game territorially.

They reduced the deficit following a penalty awarded when Dinbych lost a man to the sin bin at a maul just outside their 22.

From the resulting short-range lineout, a clever dummy scissors move by the midfield backs resulted in a try under the posts, which was easily converted.

The visitors continued to press strongly and scored an unconverted try following a number of forward drives after a short-range scrum, which gave them a 12-10 lead at the interval.

With ground conditions becoming increasingly difficult, the second half developed into a game of attrition with both defences on top as they pounced on any handling errors by the attackers.

Dinbych regained the lead in the third quarter with Gruff Roberts' second unconverted try.

Now with the wind in their favour, Caernarfon pressed strongly and drew level with an excellent penalty from 30 metres awarded for a high tackle. However despite their renewed efforts, they were unable to breach a determined Dinbych defence which held out to secure a hard won victory.