Llandovery 31 RGC 23
Saturday 14th December 2024
Both sides put on an entertaining 80 minutes of rugby, and in the end it was the homeside that were more clinical when opportunities arrived, as RGC will look back at some missed try scoring chances on a number of occasions.
The opening half was as expected, played with pace, breaks and some quick hands. RGC were punching some holes in the Drovers defence with Dan Owen carrying hard time and time again.
Tudur Jones made a darting run after taking an intercept pass, before Sam Stoddard did similarly but after collecting his kick the winger's back of the hand pass ended up in a Drover's hand.
Ilan Evans was next to break the defence, but again the pass was intercepted when it looked like the try was on.
A couple of good turnovers from RGC gave them to transition into attack and cause Llandovery problems.
It was the homesides turn to build an attack, and they powered to the line, with bodies on the whitewash but RGCs defence came away with a penalty.
The Gogs opened the score with a Dion Jones penalty with the fly-half splitting the sticks.
Pressure was building on the Gogs scrum, and the penalty count wracked up before Patrick Nelson was shown a yellow card. This was the only time of the game were the pace stopped and time dragged.
Drovers took advantage of the extra man with 2 tries in a number of minutes. Arron Warren and Rhodri Jones with the scores, plus conversions from Ioan Hughes to put them 14-3 ahead.
Credit to RGC, who then controlled the ball, built some good phases, showed patience and ended the half with a brace of Dion Jones penalties to close the gap to 5 points at the break.
The 2nd half started in similar style, both sides pressing hard in defence putting pressure on the passers. The ball was being fired through the hands a such a quick pace, inch perfect or it would have been intercepted.
It was the homeside that extended the lead when Aarron Warren finished a slick passing move, before Hughes added the extras.
The Gogs will look back at the opportunities created in attack and take positives from that but will be disappointed they didn’t take advantage with the scores- adding to the stats both Tudur Jones and Afon Bagshaw juggled a ball before knocking on when the break was on.
A 4 minute spell of the game swung in the north Walians favour. Firstly, they powered over with a driving maul and hooker Jac Petch-Jones claimed the pats on the back and the try. Dion Jones converted.
Soon after Sam Stoddard grabbed the ball from a kick, before Dan Owen made another superb run down the middle of the field and Sam Williams finished powerfully with the try. The boot of Dion Jones put his side in the lead.
It was end-to-end rugby, both teams looked to offload at any point, with knock ons, turn overs and a couple of interceptions giving the crowd plenty of entertainment.
All through the game Drovers backed themselves with attacking mauls, and again they drove to the line, but this time were awarded the penalty try. RGC again were down to 14 men when Sam Williams was yellow carded.
The penalty count was going in Llandovery’s favour, meaning possession and momentum were also going the same way with the clock ticking down.
A penalty by Maynard sealed the win, but RGC looked for that opportunity to leave with a BP. They went through the phases, Dion Jones, Delwyn Jones and Pedr Jones all broke the tackles but to no avail.
In the end, a penalty from Dion Jones dropped inches short of the posts and RGC left Church Bank empty-handed
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