Carmarthen Quins 25 v RGC 22 - match report

By Gary Williams

Following report by RGC News and picture by Liz Bryan. Thanks to both.

RGC came away from Carmarthen with a losing bonus point, against a second placed Quins side.

Head Coach Mark Jones said his side competed well in the game “I'm as happy as I can be with a defeat. It's a big point and a brilliant effort from the players against a top Quins side. The 4 players who came in from the North Wales Clubs did us well, and the other players looked after them in the game. It is difficult to single out any individuals as they all performed but I though Alex Schwarz controlled our game, Tiaan Loots did the dirty work in attack and more importantly defence and Tim Grey led well from the front. The players train hard with skills and conditioning and we know that comes into play during the last 15 minutes of games"

The home side began to dominate the forwards arm wrestle from the opening minute with a big scrum, and clearly the took confidence from it.

It was soon to be 3-nil for Carmarthen when Aled Thomas knocked over a penalty.
RGC began to get some ball and worked their way up the field, with Alex Schwarz controlling the ball well. They would have been disappointed at not putting points on the board, and when Quins broke down the field the visitors had to scramble a defence. To make matters worse Thomas extended the lead for Carmarthen with another penalty.

The home side were ramping up the pressure up front, and they tested RGC with a number of driving mauls. RGC managed to keep them out, but the problems increased when Joe Simpson was given a yellow card.

Quin’s supporters felt the try was coming, as once again the home side drove forwarded. The line was crossed after some more pressure and scrum half Benyon-Thomas darted over for the touchdown.

11 points down and a player down as well, RGC expected a tough 10 minutes but credit to the West Conference Leaders who managed to keep the ball and play in the Quins half. Another break from Quins following a knock on caused more panic in the RGC defence but Dion Jones snuffed out the danger with a super cover tackle.

Jones then got some points on the board for RGC with a penalty, just before they were back to a full side. The Gogs finished the half in a positive manner with some good phases play, but they couldn’t break the Quins tackles.

The RGC line-out began to work well for RGC in the 2nd half, which was giving Schwarz a platform to build some play with the back-line.

Quins were the ones to get the next try though, after some more pressure from the pack it was a clever kick along the ground that set up the score with Steff Marshall getting the score. Thomas added the extras. Jacob Botica and Tom Hughes came off the bench and both began to make an impact in the game as the physical Quins defence began to tire.
It was Hughes who played a part in the RGC try, after winger Harri Evans broke down the line before passing to the centre Hughes and he set up Dion Jones to run in against his former side. Botica converted.

The came fired into life minutes later when Tom Hughes scored and when Botica added the conversion RGC made the score 18-17 to the delight of the travelling supporters.
With 8 minutes on the clock both sides felt they had a chance to win the game, but it was the home side that had the ball and opted to kick to touch with a couple of penalties looking for that line-out, driving maul combination.

RGC managed to keep the Quins out a couple of times, but the referee gave the home side a penalty try in the closing minutes. Credit to RGC who still played to the final whistle and after Tom Hughes ripped the ball from a Quins player the following break resulted on a 2 on 1 attack and Afon Bagshaw finished with a try in the corner to claim the losing bonus point.

Updated 07:45 - 1 Sep 2019 by Gary Williams

Where next?

Gwernyfed Ladies 22 v Caernarfon Ladies 39 Following report kindly supplied by Eifion Harding, Caernarfon RFC.
Conwy Land Rover North Wales Cups update - all first round games complete Following yesterday's away win at Newtown for COBRA, we now have the completed list of results for the first round of games.

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