Fixture

Dowlais VS Risca 12/11/2022 Match Report

Score:

Dowlais: 46

Risca: 3

An excellent victory for Dowlais this week with a 46-3 win at home against Risca.

As the final score might suggest, Dowlais wasted no time in getting points on the board for this match, with the home side being the first to make their mark with an early penalty kick from Sion Martin.

From there, Dowlais accelerated into overdrive for the rest of the first half, attacking with a seldom-seen ferocity and consistency, from both the backs and forwards.

Dowlais would shoot ahead from their modest 3-0 lead with two early tries, touched down by Ceri Morgan and James Churchill respectively, with the second being converted by Sion Martin. Both tries showed some excellent momentum and ball-handling from the backs, with Dowlais demonstrating a clear dominance over the Risca defence.

Risca would make a brief visit to the Dowlais twenty-two shortly after, but would walk back to the halfway line with only a penalty to show for it, a kick that would earn them their only three points of the game.

Blazing ahead with a very respectful 15-3 lead and seeming to have the opposing side on the backfoot whenever they were in motion, the Dowlais morale only seemed to burn brighter, and would do so for the rest of the half.

Risca would have no more significant offensive efforts for the remainder of the half, while Dowlais only pushed their lead further along, scoring two more tries before the first forty minutes were up, with the third being scored once again by Ceri Morgan and converted by Sion Martin and the third being touched down by James Woods.

With those two put behind the line, the first half’s score came to a final count of 27-3, a suberbly wide lead, with a four-try bonus point already secured for Dowlais.

With such a comfortable gap between them, it’s should come as no surprise that spirits were quite high for the home side going into the second half, a rather relaxed atmosphere fell among their supporters, as it seemed a smooth surprise-free second half was ahead of them.

For the most part, predictions of that kind ended up being quite spot on. Risca would fail to put a single point on the board for the entire second half, with any and all attacking efforts they threw at the home side being squashed before they could get over the line and Dowlais having an answer for pretty much all they could throw at them.

The home side would slow down a little in terms of pace and ferocity across the second forty minutes and would make a noticeably higher amount of small mistakes, but considering their confidently safe position, it’s hard to look at these too harshly.

While Risca’s score would stay stuck at 3 for the rest of the game, Dowlais continued to push ahead, adding three more tries to their total throughout the half. The first of these was touched down once again by James Woods, the second by Jake Howard and the final, last minute try by Luke Evans, with the latter two were converted once again by Sion Martin, leaving Dowlais’ final score to settle at a very respectable 46-3.

It should probably go without saying that this was an excellent performance on Dowlais’ part from the score alone, but it really should be stated what a fine job the boys did this week.

The side had already showed many pieces of great attacking and defending across the previous few matches, but everything just seemed to come together this week, with some fantastic momentum and ball-handling from the backs being responsible for most of the game’s tries, a valiant physical effort from the forwards holding the scrums, mauls and rucks and a great defensive effort all around allowing the boys to maintain their well-earned lead.

Things did seem to loosen up slightly in the second half, with more passing and ball-handling errors slipping into the phases and a subtle drop in offensive consistency, but with the solid lead they’d accumulated up to that point, it was hardly of major concern.

Even Dowlais’ eternal scourge of penalties was significantly reigned in this week. While still around, its presence was far more subdued and less impactful on the game. This is partly due to a decreased number of conceded penalties, but admittedly also likely has something to do with the fact that Risca were unable to make much of the chances they were given by the occasional slip-ups Dowlais did make.

Overall this week was an excellent performance for the boys to be proud of, one that can hopefully act as a base for them to build some kind of consistency off of into the future.

But for now, the side can take a rest for two weeks while the Autumn Internationals roll on, until their next league match away against Nelson.