RUTHIN 15

DINBYCH 10

A LATE try settled a hard-fought derby clash in Ruthin's favour.

Saturday witnessed a fierce WRU League Division One (North) clash between the Blues and local rivals Dinbych, with the Cae Ddol hosts claiming a narrow success.

A crowd of around 400 watched the derby with the result in doubt until the final whistle.

The visitors showed their intentions from the start with an effective driving maul from a lineout in their half resulting in Ruthin conceding a penalty on their 10-yard line, which full back Gruff Roberts slotted over.

Dinbych continued their pressure, but the Blues' defence held and Ruthin began to make inroads into opposition territory.

Blues' full back Nathan Jones retired hurt, which led to a rearrangement of player positions.

The Blues were moving the ball round well, but they were unable to get through the visitors’ defence until around five minutes before half time.

After working their way upfield from their own half, sustained pressure led to second row Cameron Lumsden bursting through the Dinbych defence with a fine try, which fly half Iestyn Davies converted.

After a period of play in midfield, Dinbych had the chance to narrow the gap with a penalty attempt, but it went just wide.

The Blues returned to the attack and scrum half Phyl Roberts got over the Dinbych try line, but he was adjudged to have knocked on and there was no further score before the break.

Dinbych started the second half as they did the first, with some good attacking play which the home side were finding hard to contain.

The visitors had another chance to narrow the gap with a penalty attempt, but again it missed the mark.

However, their efforts were rewarded shortly afterwards when Tom Seddon crashed over the whitewash in the corner and ran behind the posts to touch down.

Gruff Roberts converted and Dinbych were back in the lead.

Shortly after the restart, Ruthin were awarded a penalty on Dinbych’s 22 and Iestyn Davies evened things up at 10-10.

With 20 minutes to go there was all to play for and the Blues spent most of that time in the visitors' half, although they were frustrated by Dinbych’s competent defence.

About seven minutes from the end, a roar went up from Ruthin supporters when they thought replacement forward Chris Davies had scored, but the ball was adjudged to have been held up.

Ruthin's glee was restored a few minutes later, however, when from the resultant scrum, flanker Owain Jones forced himself over the line in the corner for an unconverted try.

With five minutes to go, Ruthin kept up the pressure but there was no further score and the whistle went with the Blues winning 15-10.