Fixture

Dowlais Vs Abertillery 28/09/2024 Match Report

Score:

Dowlais: 21

Abertillery: 31

A loss but still valiantly fought game for Dowlais this week, away at Abertillery.

With more than six years having passed since their last journey over to the home side’s turf, Dowlais weren’t sure what sort of game they’d be in for with this bout.

While the match did get off to a relatively slow and low-score start, it was no less of a concerning one.

Abertillery came out of the gate with a fierce line-up of backs sending passes flying along the field, and a pack that seemed to outweigh and overpower Dowlais’ own at every scrum and ruck.

Consequently, Dowlais spent most of the opening stages of the game on the back-foot, holding off the home side’s offensive efforts. While they managed to hold the line quite well for a while, at around the fifteen minute mark, Abertillery broke through for their first try of the match, taking a lead of 7-0 after a swift conversion.

Things continued in a similar fashion from the following kick-off, with Dowlais struggling to stay in the home side’s half for any longer than a couple of phases after the kick-off.

Their situation would be complicated further at around the twenty minute mark, when they were struck with a yellow card.

But although fears were clearly in the air that this hole in their defence would swiftly lead to an easy try for their opponents, just a few minutes later, Dowlais would shock everyone with a surprise try of their own – ran down the touch-line and touched under the posts by Chad Powell.

After a swift conversion by Conor Murphy, despite the immense pressure that they’d been under for more than a quarter of the match up until that point, impressively, Dowlais had managed to bring the score even.

But unfortunately, any hopes that this moment of brilliance would turn the tables going forward were swiftly dashed when, just a few minutes later, towards the thirty minute mark, Abertillery would charge back into the visitors’ twenty-two, and after another string of valiant defensive efforts from Dowlais, would sadly break through.

But despite this little setback, things seemed far from hopeless for Dowlais at this point. While they were a try down once again, their sudden charge behind the posts just a few minutes prior had proven that they had the capability to slip through the gaps and surprise the home side when a chance arose.

Coupled with Abertillery missing their second conversion, leaving them with only a five point lead at 12-7, the game was still far from out of reach.

However, Dowlais’ situation would become a lot bleaker just a couple of minutes later when, just as their previous yellow card was on the verge of expiring, they would be struck with a red card.

Considering the assault that they’d already been put under up until that point, the prospect of being a man down for the rest of the match certainly wasn’t a very hopeful one.

But despite that, for the remaining ten or so minutes of the half, things didn’t go so badly. While Dowlais were unable to make any strides towards closing the score gap, with a missed penalty being just about as close as they got, they were at least able to make it to half-time without conceding anything else.

So, with Dowlais’ defensive line still holding strong, the half came to an end with a score of 12-7 to Abertillery.

Just from looking at the score at the halfway point, truthfully, it really didn’t seem like things were going too badly for Dowlais. They were only a single try down, and having already shown that they had what it took to break through Abertillery’s lines when the chance presented itself, the game didn’t seem too out of reach.

But thinking about the first half in a bit more detail presented a somewhat bleaker picture.

While it was true that the home side had only scored twice up until that point, they’d also had several golden opportunities, that by all accounts they absolutely should have scored, and only didn’t in the end because of a last minute knock-on or flubbed pass.

Comparatively, Dowlais hadn’t had much of an offensive presence at all outside of their single try, and had spent most of the half on the defensive – a valiant, mostly quite sturdy defensive, but on the defensive nonetheless.

Couple that with the fact that they’d now be down a man for the rest of the match, and it began to seem more and more like, going into the second half, Dowlais were barely managing to hold on.

As many had feared, the second half didn’t get off to the best of starts for the visitors. Within five minutes, Abertillery managed to break through with yet another converted try, widening the score gap even further to 19-7.

The home side wouldn’t give Dowlais any time to rest either, as soon enough, the boys found themselves right back on their line. Despite yet another hard-fought defensive effort, the home side managed to get the best of them once again, this time with a penalty try, taking the score to a rather demoralising 26-7.

Even with a bonus point already in hand, the assault didn’t stop there. As the match entered its final quarter, Abertillery would break through with one last try, albeit an unconverted one, bringing the score to 31-7.

At this point, things had begun to look more than a little hopeless for Dowlais. Having spent the first twenty minutes of the half mostly on the defensive, with nothing to show for their efforts on the scoreboard, it had almost begun to seem as though their score would stay exactly where it had it had been at the end of the first half.

But over the course of the next few minutes and the final quarter of the match as a whole, something quite remarkable happened.

After a half spent mostly on the back-foot, with only brief, ill-fated ventures into Abertillery’s half, Dowlais’ offensive efforts finally began to get somewhere.

Steadily, the boys reached further and further into the home twenty-two, suddenly taking control of and overpowering the scrums that they’d consistently been dominated in all match up until that point.

At last, Abertillery were the ones forced to be on the defensive, and the ones whose attacking efforts failed to escape their half for more than a few phases.

After twenty minutes, and to some extent, an entire match spent hanging on, Dowlais’ efforts finally began to bear fruit.

Thus, after several minutes spent in the home side’s twenty-two, Dowlais finally managed to drive the ball over for their well-deserved second converted try of the match, bringing the score to 31-14.

And unlike the unfortunate aftermath of their first try, for the next few minutes and for the rest of the match, Dowlais continued in much the same way, taking on Abertillery’s defensive line with everything that they had to give.

While one particularly close effort came up short in the end, just a couple of minutes later, Dowlais would break through one last glorious time for their third and final try of the match, touched down and converted by Conor Murphy, bringing the score to 31-21.

While the match would keep rolling on for a few more minutes from there, ultimately, the score would remain just where it had reached after Dowlais’ final try.

As such, this particular bout would come to an end with a score of 31-21, a bonus point victory to Abertillery.

While it can be quite easy to look at this match from a purely score-focussed perspective, and to draw conclusions based on that alone – to see a match mostly dominated by the home side, and a visiting side that only managed to find their footing towards the end, when it was already too late – personally, that’s not how I and many others saw it.

While Dowlais did undoubtedly spend most of the game on the back-foot and did concede a number of tries in the process, considering the sheer amount of time that they spent on the defensive, the ferocity of Abertillery’s attacking efforts and the fact that they spent a majority of the match down at least a single man (with them even going down to twelve men at one point), I think that the boys showed an admirable amount of grit and resolve this week.

And while Abertillery did score an impressive number of tries over the course of the match – more than enough for a winning bonus point – they also botched several of them due to a number of careless mistakes, such as knock-ons or poor passes right before the try-line.

These mistakes, coupled with the overwhelming amount of possession that they had for most of the game and Dowlais’ aforementioned depleted numbers leads me to believe that they really should have scored more than what they did in the end.

In contrast, while Dowlais had significantly fewer opportunities to score, they took great advantage of most of them.

But more than anything else, I think that the way that the boys managed to come back and accomplish as much as they did in the final quarter of the match really deserves some praise.

After sixty minutes mostly spent barely holding on, and particularly a second half where they’d already conceded three tries, I think that Dowlais showed a great deal of grit and character to come back and fight the way that they did in the final stretch of this match.

While some parts of this excellent final quarter, such as Dowlais taking control of the scrums, could be chalked up to changes made by Abertillery, I still believe that regardless of the result, the boys should be very proud of the performance that they managed to put together this week.

Interestingly, because of a cup match fixture, Dowlais will actually be playing the same side again next week. So we’ll just have to see if the boys will be able to pull out a successful win next week, as they play Abertillery once again, this time at home.