Fixture

WRU LEAGUE DIVISION 1 EAST

Dowlais:13

Hartridge: 5

Another much needed win for Dowlais this week with a comfortable victory against Hartridge at home.

I’m glad to say Dowlais displayed many of the positive traits seen a fortnight ago at Caerleon again this week, such as a highly improved and fortified defense and increased attacking efficiency, especially when it came to long and fast carries down the wing.

Although these improvements held Hartridge at bay for the most part, (a lapse in defense at the tail-end of the game that led to a try not withstanding) Dowlais ended up with little to show for their attacking efforts, with many impressive plays being cut short at the last moment by either a lapse in discipline leading to a penalty or an inconveniently timed knock on, with the latter being a persistant problem throughout the game, worsened by the windy conditions. Dowlais’ one try of the game saw all of these problems put to the side, with a lengthy series of passes from one side of the pitch to the other, culminating in an excellent run from the half-way line to the Hartridge try line down the wing, touched down and then converted by Sion Martin.

But as stated before, Dowlais’ excellent defense more than made up for the lack of points on the board. Another leading factor to Dowlais’ victory was their wise choice to put points on the board with penalties when they had the chance, long before the afore-mentioned try and were successful in just keeping a losing bonus point away a team within such close proximity to them on the table, with both once again being kicked by Sion Martin.

For now we can only hope that this can be the start of a second wind for Dowlais in this latter half of the season and can succeed in keeping them away from relegation.