Fixture

Dowlais RFC | 1st Team 7 - 20 Nelson RFC | 1st Team

Match Report
24 March 2022 / Team News

15/01/22 Dowlais v Nelson Admiral National League 1 EAST Match Report

Dowlais Vs Nelson 15/01/2022 Match Report

Score:

Dowlais: 7

Nelson: 20


 

A disappointing time for Dowlais this week with a 20-7 loss at home against Nelson.

For the most part, the first half remained a balanced affair, apart from an early penalty kicked by Nelson, a large part of the half was spent stranded outside of either twenty-two, with only the occasional venture in for either side.

Both sides had some promising breakthroughs in this time, with Dowlais in particular getting tantalizingly close to a try on a few occasions thanks to some respectable running efforts all around. But unfortunately, each of these turned up short, be it from a botched final pass or the carrier being dragged down at the worst possible moment.

As the first half drew to a close, every attacking attempt by both sides foiled in one way or another each time, it felt to most that Nelson’s early three points would be all the first half would see in terms of points, with both sides moving more-or-less evenly into the second half.

Unfortunately for Dowlais however, Nelson’s fortune’s turned around in the closing minutes of the half, with one of their offensive attempts finally taking them over the line and scoring the first try of the game, a converted one at that.

With not much left of the half following the unfortunate conceding, Dowlais suddenly entered half-time with a much more daunting uphill battle facing them and a nasty knock to their morale going into the rest of the game.

And in the opening minutes of the second half, things wouldn’t get much better, with an early attempted kick from the Dowlais twenty-two getting charged down, with an another try behind the home side’s line shortly following.

With another conversion, the task that lay before the home side had become even more of a tall order.

Luckily for Dowlais, this moment didn’t coincide with some kind of great turning of the tides that suddenly completely turned the game over in Nelson’s favour. For the rest of the game going forward, both sides remained as offensively and defensively balanced as they’d been for the majority of the first half, with neither side particularly dominating or crumbling.

A glimmer of a comeback even began to shimmer for Dowlais with a try of their own after some pressure on the Nelson line, touched down by Morgan Powell and converted by Sion Martin, getting the home side their first, and unfortunately last points on the board.

Yes, while Dowlais managed to remain on mostly equal footing with their opponents for the rest of the game from that point on, matching them simply wasn’t good enough with the 17-7 score gap that they had to close.

Eventually, the burst of momentum from their try faded, Nelson managed to kick one more penalty to widen the gap just that little bit further, and with one last offensive push on the Nelson try-line sadly coming up short, the game came to an end with a 20-7 victory for Nelson.

While honestly a more evenly-matched game than the score would suggest, Nelson’s victory was simply a result of them being able to grasp more of their opportunities than Dowlais did, opportunities that created a gap that the home side just weren’t able to close in time.

Hopefully, the boys can grasp those opportunities more firmly two weeks from now, when they once again away head to Bedlinog.

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