Fixture

Dowlais RFC | 1st Team 6 - 11 Brynmawr RFC | 1st Team

Match Report
10 January 2023 / Team News

07/01/23 Dowlais v Brynmawr Admiral National League 1 EAST Match Report

Dowlais VS Brynmawr 07/01/2023 Match Report

Score:

Dowlais: 6

Brynmawr: 11

A slim but still valiantly fought defeat for Dowlais this week at home against Brynmawr.

With final scores as small and a score gap as tight as this game’s, you’d come to expect that the game was very close and well-contested all throughout. This was the case with the first half, but mostly only in a one-sided way.

That is to say that while the half was very closely contested, it mostly only involved Dowlais defending and Brynmawr attacking. The home side would spend the majority of the first forty minutes in their own half, and a sizeable portion of it within their own twenty-two.

Conversely, Brynmawr would spend most of the half relentlessly attacking and trying to chip away at the Dowlais defence to slip away over their try line. Considering how long and how consistently the home side were under pressure throughout most of the half, one would have expected a much higher score than there ended up being.

In the end, the first half ended at a very low 5-0 lead to Brynmawr. Throughout everything, the Dowlais boys impressively defended their line almost entirely from start to finish. This would stand as an impressive feat on its own, but coupled with the horrible conditions and the downpours that lasted through most of the half, it becomes something truly commendable.

Brynmawr’s one and only try of the half – and the only try of the game – would come shortly after a Dowlais yellow card temporarily thinned their numbers to fourteen, allowing the visitors to slip through the cracks and earn themselves the only points of the half with an unconverted try.

The pressure would continue until Dowlais’ numbers were replenished back to fifteen and long after, but Dowlais would concede no more points, ending the half off at a score of 5-0 to Brynmawr.

Despite having spent so much of the game up until that point under the pump, Dowlais had managed to see the half through relatively unscathed. Over the half-time break, as the rain finally came to an end, supporters were hopeful that the boys would be able to close the thin score gap and shoot ahead.

The second half would be much more balanced in terms of possession, with both sides spending ample time in both attacking and defending positions. Despite this however, no more tries would be scored for the remainder of the game, and the only other points to hit the board would be penalties.

The first of these would come to Dowlais, kicked by Evan Thomas, tightening the gap between the two sides to a meagre two points. But sadly, Dowlais would never get to fully close that gap.

Brynmawr would earn and successfully kick two more penalties before Dowlais could get another notch on the board, pushing their lead further away to 11-3.

In the interim, both sides would continue to attack whenever they could, but the defence of the opposite side always brought their efforts short. Dowlais in particular had a few of their campaigns in the Brynmawr twenty-two cut short thanks to a conceded penalty or two, so despite the score gap feeling quite small and far from unmanageable, they were unable to get the large sums they needed to finally push ahead.

But the home side wouldn’t leave the game empty handed though, as another penalty, also kicked by Evan Thomas shortly after Brynmawr’s final three-pointer would shorten the gap to just five points. It didn’t prove enough to win the game, but it at least got them a losing bonus point to take away.

From there, the back-and-forth of offense and defence would continue to roll on uneventfully until the final whistle blew, the game ending with a final score of 11-6.

Overall, I’d say that Dowlais fought very well this game, even if they did so in defence far more than they did offence. It can’t be overstated how well and how long they managed to defend their line, especially under the exceptionally bad conditions. Even if their attacking prowess wasn’t quite up to snuff to finish the job, that’s still undoubtedly something for the boys to be proud of.

However, it is a shame that penalties managed to thwart the home side as much as they did once again. All of Brynmawr’s points came from a penalty in some way, obviously for the penalty kicks, but also for their only try, seeing as that came from a reduced number of players caused by a yellow card, and that’s not to mention the attacking efforts in the second half that were cut short by similar mistakes.

Let’s hope for a better result – and some better weather – next week, as Dowlais face a great challenge away at Newbridge.

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