Fixture

Dowlais VS Brecon 18/09/2021

Score:

Dowlais: 13

Brecon: 29

A good but unfortunately not quite good enough effort for Dowlais this week with a 13-29 defeat at home against Brecon.

The first half began evenly enough with both sides exchanging runs against each other’s defences. However, a problem with discipline and giving away penalties that would plague Dowlais for most of the game first reared its head in the opening quarter, surrendering a lot of ground and thwarting some of their attempts to get into the Brecon twenty-two.

Additionally two penalty kicks were given to Brecon, the first of which was a miss, but the second of which went through, putting the first points on the board with a 3-0 lead to Brecon.

From there, although Dowlais did their best to break through and defend their line when needed, eventually the tide began to swing in Brecon’s favour, and after a heavy amount of pressure, Brecon broke through and scored their first try which they swiftly converted.

The Brecon offensive effort continued much the same for the following minutes, eventually netting the visitors another converted try, putting them seventeen points ahead.

However, their dominance wouldn’t continue for the entirety of the rest of the half, as Dowlais soon mounted a counterattack to the Brecon back lines, getting tantalizingly close to some tries of their own, but unfortunately being unable to secure the points.

Dowlais didn’t leave the first half empty-handed however, as their attacking efforts in the latter stages of the half did win them two penalty kicks – both kicked by Sion Martin – finally getting them on the board going into the second half with the score at 17-6 to Brecon.

The home side managed to carry some of this attacking momentum into the second half, going back and forth both offensively and defensively with Brecon for several minutes as they’d done in the first half. But unfortunately, just like the first forty minutes, this back-and-forth eventually ended with a try for Brecon – this one unconverted – taking the visitors even further ahead with a 22-6 lead.

Dowlais wasn’t willing to back down however, and with continued vigour, managed to get into a corner of the Brecon twenty-two and score their first and unfortunately only try of the game, touched down by Chris Thomas and converted by Sion Martin, closing the gap a little to 22-13.

With some scoring momentum now behind them, Dowlais returned in full-force to Brecon’s half with a flurry of further assaults over the following minutes, some once again coming painfully close to the other side of the try-line. But sadly, thanks to Brecon’s own defensive efforts and Dowlais’ persisting penalty problem, their efforts bore no fruit.

Although a valiant effort to get back in the game, the momentum seemed to fizzle out from there, and one final converted try put Brecon well ahead of the home side with a 29-13 lead, with the score board remaining unchanged for the rest of the game from there.

As rain began to settle in during the closing minutes, the victory went to Brecon.

Overall, despite the impressive lead Brecon had earned over the course of the game, Dowlais still put up a more-than-respectable effort. Although most of their attacks didn’t come to any points in the end, many of them still showed great promise and could have helped turn the tide of the game if they just managed to get a little further.

One unfortunate area could still use some work is Dowlais’ discipline, which was almost as much of a hindrance to their attempts to score as Brecon’s defence was.

Hopefully these problems can be ironed out for a victory next week as Dowlais play Bedlinog at home.