Fixture

WRU LEAGUE DIVISION 1 EAST

Score:

Dowlais: 24

Cwmbran: 27

Another swing and a miss this week for Dowlais with a close-shave loss away at Cwmbran.

Things immediately seemed to be going against Dowlais at the start as an unconverted try put them down five points right away, always a bad start. Despite this however, attacking forces remained fairly balanced between both teams, with both sides spending their fair share of time in the opposing twenty-two.

For a while, the most to come of this early competition was another try for Cwmbran and a penalty kick courtesy of Dowlais’ Steve James, starting his impressive kicking record for the game. But eventually, after a series of Dowlais dominating scrums, one on Cwmbran’s five yard line earned them their first try of the game, touched down by Mike Jones and converted once again by Steve James, equalizing the score at 10-10.

Although no more tries came from the first half, a series of campaigns in the Cwmbran twenty-two earned Dowlais two more successful penalty kicks, both kicked again by Steve James, letting them leave the first half behind with a 16-10 lead.

This fortune didn’t last going into the second half however. Firstly Dowlais’ lead was shortened minutes in by a Cwmbran penalty kick, reducing their six point lead to only three.

The rest of that lead wouldn’t last much longer however as a controversially allowed and converted try for Cwmbran would soon put their lead in the dust, with Dowlais now down four points.

With another Dowlais penalty kick making the score 20-19 to Cwmbran, it looked as though all would be alright, but another hard contested and long lull in points eventually ending in another converted try for Cwmbran set what looked like would be a bleak scene for the remaining quarter of the game.

But that wasn’t the case. Dowlais’s attack sprang back to life in the final quarter of the game, cornering Cwmbran until an unconverted try from Kristian Owen (bringing the score to 27-24) seemed to bring the crowd back to life in hopes of a last-minute comeback try to end.

And it all looked as though it would happen. As Dowlais soon made their way to the Cwmbran twenty-two, looking fiercer than ever. A yellow card for Cwmbran brought even more promise, and with every play ending what seemed like inches away from the tryline, a last-minute try to win seemed inevitable.

But alas, it wasn’t to be. The game-winning try never came, and Dowlais was barely robbed of their first win of the season.

Despite solid attack for the most part, inaccurate passes plagued many attacking plays during all parts of the game, with long passes being one of the biggest offenders of ending chances of scoring.

Other than that, with every game this season so far Dowlais has slowly built a more and more competent and threatening looking attacking force, and I can only hope next week that will finally come to fruition and get Dowlais their first win of the season.