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MENAI BRIDGE 16 – RHYL 39

A very significant win for Rhyl, characterised by strong scrummaging, bold counter-attacking and powerful mid-field defence. Rhyl’s recent training programme finally bore fruit on a glorious, warm Spring day, with a scoresheetof 6 tries, 3 conversions and a penalty goal against 3 penalty goals and a late converted try.

The downside was Rhyl’s first half indiscipline, with too many thoughtless penalties given away (including 2 collector’s items from the referee – 2 penalties blown against Rhyl for crooked feeds in the scrum, previously thought to be an extinct species.) This gave the Menai Bridge fly-half ample opportunity to display his considerable kicking skills, with 3 excellent long range penalty goals for a 9-7 home lead. All this despite the home side never having visited the Rhyl 22 metre zone.

With the benefit of the breeze in the second half, Rhyl’s running game came to the fore, with an immediate long run in by Jack Hughes. Then came a fine try from the ever-patient Joe Warhurst after some fine inter-passing and support play from well inside the Rhyl half. Ben Syme orchestrated the play beautifully, but was forced off mid-way through the second half with a badly broken arm. His calmness, skill and game management were crucial components of Rhyl's success – one chip over the top for Jason Blackmore to gather and break really caught the eye.

Taking advantage of a dominant scrummage, elder brother Dale Blackmore made the hard yards, the forwards tackled manfully, supported by Ethan Woodfine’s rock-like defence in mid-field, but Menai Bridge had the satisfaction of a late, driven try to round off a thoroughly entertaining game of rugby.