Fixture

The Sports travelled away to Cwmgors on Saturday with full knowledge that this side had beaten the league leaders, Abercrave, a week earlier. So there was no complacency when they kicked off on a cold afternoon. The Sports had all of the early possession but although strong forward driving, the bigger Cwmgors pack defended well. And when presented with a penalty opportunity the Sports grabbed the chance. An easy kick for Josh Davies struck the post, and an early lead went begging. Only a few moments later Davies made amends when he joined the line well from full back to create an overlap and score wide out. A much harder kick than the first one sailed over and the visitors led 0-7 after 10 minutes.

It was not long before some positive play by the home side forced an error from the Sports which allowed winger Cellan Williams to shorten the scoreline to 3-7. The Sports continued to pressurise the Cwmgors forwards with Lloyd Wilson, Dewi Rees and Rhys Obbard making classic runs and inter-passing well. This forced another penalty which Davies made no mistake with. 3-10 the scoreline. Then a superb break-away run by number 8, Alun Evans surprised the the whole of the Sports pack as well as the opposition and after 30 yards he was alone and on the home side’s 22 line. Fortunately before the Sports cavalry arrived the Cwmgors floundering threes came ‘over the top’ of Alun and the Sports, through Davies, added 3 more penalty points allowing the Sports to start drawing away from the home side at 3-13.

The next episode of rugby was a delight to watch as the Sports opened the play up with a counter-attack started by Josh Davies linking with Lloyd Roderick, James Donovan, Gethin Rosser-Stanford and then finally to Rhys Obbard who showed great pace and skill to score near the posts. Josh extended the lead to 3 -20 with a easy kick. It now looked as if the Sports were in some sort over overdrive as they switched play from the right to Chris Walker on the left wing and he squeezed over in the corner for an unconverted try. This seemed to give the home side a wake up call and the remainder of the half saw them launch attack after attack at the Sports which needed the likes of Ryan Wallace, James Harris and skipper Greg Thomas to put in some heavy tackles which along with Alun Evans they certainly did and their line was never breached as the half ended 3-25.

Cwmgors started the second half much the same as they ended the first, they were playing positive running rugby and in defence were a strong unit. There was some good individual games from Sports players like James Donovan and Lloyd Wilson with wing forward Dewi Rees having a great game. It was a measure of the even play of this half to note that the first score only came after a full 30 minutes. When it did it was a cracker. It started behind the Sports try line as Chris Walker gathered a chip ahead from Cwmgors. He made the initial 5 yards only, Donovan picked and ran, was scragged to the ground and then acting as scrum half Lloyd Wilson saw a gap and took the play to the Sports 10 yard line with help of Roderick who had fellow centre Rosser-Stanford in support, he turned on the pace and looked to have run our of pitch as he was forced wide, but with no room to pass out to winger Liam Bevan they conjured a classy inside flip pass that wrong footed the Cwmgors drifting defence. Now on the halfway line Bevan had a lot to do. But he did it in style and with real pace, darting through the whole of the home cover to score what arguably may have been the try of the season. Davies added the extra and at 3-32 the game was won.

It has been a measure of the strength of the Sports total squad and how substitutes have been working so well that the final try was created by three of the five subs who took the field for the last fifteen or more minutes. Dai Dent at Number 8 picked up from the base of a wheeling scrum and the Cwmgors back row were ‘away with the fairies’ and he did what he does so well and put his head down and made 20 meters. The ball was recycled by Donovan, sub Dan Donnelly came in and made yards before off-loading to Connor Browne to coast in under the posts for the final try. Davies added the extra taking his tally to 19 points and the Sports to 39 for a fine 3-39 win.

It is a measure of the Sports form this season that they have conceded only 7 tries in 8 league games and scored more points than anyone 335. More than the league leaders who have played 3 games more. Next week we will need this form to take on a very good side in Dolgellau as we play the next round of the Bowl competition.