Fixture

Dowlais: 18

Blaenavon: 8

A much needed victory for Dowlais this week as the team earn themselves a wide victory against Blaenavon at home. The first half was a slow one. While the vast majority of the half was played in Blaenavon’s half, in fact, they didn’t even enter Dowlais’ half until the last 5 minutes or so, Dowlais ended the half 5-0 down. This can be put down to lots of little mistakes (including many knock-ons, giving away penalties and botched touch downs to name a few) adding up and making Dowlais’ many trips to the Blaenavon 22 ultimately worthless.

These fruitless attempts and a late first half try from Chris Davies, leaving Dowlais 5-0 down lowered hopes for the second half and the game as a whole. However minutes, into the second half, shortly after a penalty from Steve James, Dowlais came screaming down the left wing and scored a try courtesy of Tom Griffin. After a successful conversion, once again from Steve James, hopes were at a high once again.

An unconverted try from Cameron Trowbridge and another penalty from Steve James later, victory seemed all but inevitable, and that it was. After only netting themselves a penalty courtesy of Dan Pearce, and barely missing out on a losing bonus point via a penalty, Blaenavon were defeated.

While on paper, the score would suggest a great performance, there are still plenty of things to be learnt from this game. While the tries that they did score were undoubtedly great, the uncountable missed opportunities were definitely a shame. Chances need to be taken while they’re there going forward. Knock-ons appeared to be a problem as one of the constant reasons for failed tries.

Either way, going into the final stretch of the season, any victory sets a good precedent, so for the moment, a mid to high final league placement looks promising for Dowlais to achieve.