Fixture

Dowlais VS Risca 02/04/2022 Match Report
Score:
Dowlais: 31
Risca: 3
An excellent win for Dowlais this week in their final home game of the season, with a 31-3
victory against Risca.
The game started off fairly evenly matched for both sides, with the Risca backs in
particular looking like they might pose a real threat out on the wings. But after a steady
back-and-forth for the first few minutes, Dowlais got the first points on the board, with a
penalty kicked by Nathan Pritchard.
Things continued in a similar manner for a while longer, as a heavy fall of April snow
began to settle over the pitch, with there being no other updates to the score until Risca
kicked their own penalty, netting them three points that would turn out to be their first and
last of the whole game.
As the first half drew closer to its end, Dowlais found themselves right up next to the
Risca try-line, after a couple of phases of slowly breaking through, one last great push
earned the boys the first try of the game, touched down by Joel Braddock, and converted by
Nathan Pritchard.
Risca remained unable to answer back against this for the remainder of the half
thanks to a strong defensive effort from Dowlais, and the half came to a close with the
home side at a not quite massive, but still respectable 10-3 lead.
The small blizzard that had decided to visit the pitch had thankfully passed over and
given way to a bit of sun by the time the second half really got going. Similarly to the first
half, Risca struggled to get on the score board any more in the early phases of the second
half, something certainly not improved by Dowlais earning themselves another try, touched
down by Morgan Powell and converted again by Nathan Pritchard.
With a two-try deficit now between them, Dowlais seemed to be looking more and
more comfortable, especially with how they’d managed to hold off the visitors up until that
point.
But for a moment, their fortunes looked like they might have taken a bleak turn,
with a yellow card struck against them for an intentional knock-on. If Risca were ever to
strike back, this would be the time.
However, despite the visitors’ attempts to capitalise on the opportunity that had
presented itself, no points at all came to them during these 10 minutes. On the contrary,
Dowlais almost managed to secure themselves another try, with a quick chip on the wing

followed by a run to the corner, unfortunately clutched away at the last second by a foot in
touch.
Although a bit disappointing, coming out of their fourteen-man ten minutes with a
full two-try lead definitely wasn’t anything to be saddened by. And after their ten minute
window of opportunity closed, Risca wouldn’t be able to crawl back into the running for the
rest of the game, remaining unable to break through the Dowlais line.
With a full fifteen back on the pitch, Dowlais continued to widen the gap further and
further. In the time they had left, they scored two more converted tries, one touched down
by Sion Martin, and another touched down under the posts by Morgan Powell for one last
easy conversion, to get the home side their 31-3 bonus point win.
Overall, it was an excellent performance from Dowlais. The boys showed great
vigour in both attack and defence throughout the whole game. Whatever chances Risca had
to come back were held back by a valiant defensive line that stood strong from the first
minute to the last and an all-around strong attacking front that ensured that they were
almost never without a comfortable lead.
Lineouts appeared to be a bit of a problem at points, but nothing catastrophic ever
came from them, so on the whole it was a stellar performance that I look forward to
hopefully seeing repeated next week in Dowlais’ final game of the season, away against
Brecon.