Rugby Union: Colwyn Bay off the mark at last

Oct 22 2009

COLWYN BAY 10 LLANGEFNI 9

WRU Division One North

COLWYN Bay picked up their first win of the Division One North season and immediately moved off the foot of the table.

While the Bay claimed a narrow one point triumph at home over Llangefni, Denbigh were downed 24-7 at home by Pwllheli to drop to the basement of the North Wales top flight.

In fairness the Bay had been threatening to secure their first win for the last couple of weeks and had fallen just short in games against title hopefuls Mold and Ruthin.

And they will now look to take this form forward to Saturday’s trip to league newcomers Bro Ffestiniog.

Cefni were given an early wake-up call when a missed tackle let in Bay centre Dave Hocknell for the game’s only try, converted by Adam Hughes.

Arwel Roberts replied for the Anglesey side with a 20th minute penalty, but Bay continued to mount good attacks and fully deserved to be in front at the interval.

After the break Cefni started brightly and a burst upfield by the backs threatened a try, but a home side infringement meant the visitors had to be content with a second Roberts three-pointer.

Llangefni were now trying to string some moves together but continually dropped or misplaced the pass.

Despite this they managed to force another transgression from the home side and Roberts gratefully kicked his team into an improbable lead.

The visitors continued to make errors, however, and one misdemeanour allowed Hughes to kick what turned out to be the winning penalty.

Cefni missed a kick which would have won the match, but it was Colwyn who finished the stronger.

Cefni were given an early wake up call before they had time to settle down as a missed tackle allowed centre Dave Hocknell go over for the game’s only try, with fellow centre Adam Hughes adding the conversion for a 7-0 lead.

The visitors tried to get into the game but some alert tackling and rush defence was enough on most occasions to put the islanders out of their stride, and on occasions they missed the opportunity of an overlap under severe pressure from the Bay.

In fact it took Cefni 20 minutes before they were able to gain a kickable penalty by Arwel Roberts to bring the score to 7-3.

Colwyn Bay continued to play some fine attacking rugby and were keeping the Anglesey men on the back foot.

Llangefni continued to drop passes or get isolated with the ball allowing Bay to kick penalties downfield and stop any threat the travellers may have posed.

Cefni started the second half strongly, and reduced the deficit with a second Roberts three-pointer after Iestyn Dafydd broke free upfield and the Bay were forced to concede a penalty.

Cefni were now trying to string some moves together but continually dropped or misplaced the pass. Despite this they managed to force another infringement off the home side and Roberts gratefully kicked his side into an improbable lead.

As the second half progressed into the last quarter, Llan were still guilty of booting ball away to give the Bay backs a choice of where to return the kick and peg them back in their own half.

From one such instance the Cefni full-back was caught with indecision and from the tackle, an infringement by an away player was penalised and Colwyn Bay were back in front.

With the game coming to the last 10 minutes, Cefni were awarded a penalty but following a good line kick, were unable to secure recycled ball and yet again the hosts ran back strongly at them, gaining 70 metres very sharply.

Somehow Cefni cleared the threat and in a counter attack forced a penalty from the hosts, out wide on the left. Unfortunately for them the kick failed and the chance of a steal for victory at the end did not materialise.

In fact it was Colwyn Bay who finished the stronger, with Cefni having to pull the stops out to keep them from scoring again before the final whistle.