14 Jan 2023
RGC 26 Ebbw Vale 14
Saturday 14th January 2023
Ebbw Vale headed North with 6 wins in a row, and left for the 2nd time this season with a defeat.
The first half had spells of RGC breaks, making hard yards with ball in hand but the errors were costing them momentum and territory.
Harri Evans and Rhys Tudor both tore up the grass with some strong running early on.
The boot of Evan Lloyd was finding range with a couple of good 50/22 kicks to ease the pressure.
Time and time again RGC lineout misfired which not only gave the visitors some easy ball, but stopped any momentum the Gogs had in the game.
Dion Jones was next to make a dash before popping the ball to Efan Jones but he was inches from the line.
12 minutes in RGC took the lead with a Dion Jones penalty and Ebbw Vale were also down to 14 men when scrum-half Jonathan Davies was yellow carded.
From the restart Bagshaw collected and ran through the Steelmen but similar to much of the game the Gogs were then punished at the breakdown and Ebbw Vale came away with the penalty.
The pressure built on the RGC line when Ebbw Vale went for the driving maul, and after couple of penalties the referee awarded a penalty try.
Errors continued to occur for the Gogs, and from the restart Dion Jones kicked out on the full.
The lineout continued to misfire, and RGC couldn’t get much foothold in the game.
As the clock ticked to 40 minutes RGC put in a big scrum and split the Ebbw Vale pack to claim a penalty. Dion Jones was successful to make it 6-7 at the break.
It wasn’t a great start to the 2nd half when Ebbw Vale were gifted a try, with Evan Lloyd taking full advantage to score and convert.
The Steelmen were having more of the ball and RGC were desperate to get a platform to build an attack.
RGC were shown a yellow when Pedr Jones was carded, after Ebbw Vale were testing the RGC line.
The crucial 10 minutes with a man-down RGC scored 10 points which turned the game.
Dion Jones nailed a huge penalty from his own half which sailed over the posts to Old Colwyn. The crowd roared them on and minutes later the scrum spilt the Steelmen scrum and were given the penalty try.
RGC line speed was fast, Danny Cross chased down and put in a good tackle.
Ebbw Vale tried to work up the field, but they knocked on and RGC were able to clear.
If the visitors thought they had RGC on the ropes, they were given a sucker punch when Rhys Tudor went coast to coast to sprint down the field to score the crucial try. Dion Jones hit the conversion and the win was clinched.
Post Match
Head Coach Ceri Jones saw his side defeat an Ebbw Vale side who were on a 6-game winning run
“I thought we made it hard for ourselves at times, and when we went down to 14 men we actually stuck to our structures better – because we had to. Focusing on getting out of our half and putting pressure from the kick.
We defended well before a contentious penalty try was given against us. At times our discipline let us down, after getting into some good field positions.
Second half we showed how easy it can be when we box kicked, chased it down, then had a long-range kick they knocked on and from the scrum, we picked up the score. We need to learn those lessons, as sometimes we make it difficult, playing it in the wrong areas.
Ebbw Vale came up with a good unbeaten run, so to get the win is a big positive, we showed good energy, line speed was what we asked for,
We will look at the errors, our discipline and if we address those I think we can keep moving forward this season”
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