Saturday 16th September

Bala 6 CAERNARFON 24

Caernarfon continued with their 100% success rate with a well deserved away win at Bala last weekend. Hardly a spectacle that will linger in the mind, more a case of grinding out a result and taking the points. Bala had their moments, however some early missed tackles accounted for the majority of Bala’s promising spells. For Caernarfon they can take plenty of plus points from the amount of phases that they were able to put together. Their lineout was a case of stop start, for fifteen minutes it looked like they had never played together, the next fifteen performing like a well oiled high performance sports car; controlling the ball with the greatest of easy and causing problems in abundance. The Cofi’s enjoyed plenty of possession and despite some initial failures in the tackle area, ensured their try line was kept in tact. For all of Bala’s efforts they could only muster six points. Three points coming from a penalty through centre, Dafydd Yaxley, and full back, Ynyr Jones adding a drop goal.

For the Cofi’s it was a case of The Back Row Show with all three members crossing. First to cross the Bala try line was Dewi Williams. The move started when Paul Rowlands broke free with the ball, some clever interplay between Paul Rowlands and Gareth Thirsk saw Rowlands providing the final lay off to Dewi Williams who charged over the Bala line carrying the desperate tacklers to boot. The trustworthy Kelvin Morris added the extras to take the Cofi’s into a 7-3 lead by the break. It was barely a minute into the second half before the Cofi’s extended their lead through a penalty from Morris. Just over an hour in to the game it was the turn of Gareth Thirsk to get on the score sheet when he crossed for a try following some excellent link up play between the forwards. With Morris adding the extras the Cofi’s held a comfortably 17-6 lead. The Cofi’s were unlucky that their lead was not extended when Morris had a penalty kick rebound off the posts. From the rebound it was the Cofi’s who were quickest to react, but brave defence from the hosts denied the Cofi’s the score.

The final try came deep into injury time when Bala mistakenly took a free quick quickly and recklessly kicked possession away into the hands of inform wing Arwel Davies who jinked in and out of the tiring Bala defence. With Gwil Hendy in support the ball was offloaded into the hands of Paul Rowlands who went under the posts for the score. With Morris adding the conversion it was the end of the match, a 24-6 win and three points in the bag.