RGC SO UNLUCKY

By Mike Jones

SUPERB PERFORMANCE BY RGC

Small Margins, Game of Two Halves, What could have been…all phrases that could describe RGC’s close bonus point defeat against Swansea.

The game was tight and ended with RGC camped on the Swansea line, and the 80 minutes that preceded it was played in a strong wind and plenty of rain.

The first half was pretty much Swansea’s with the visitors going in at the break 13 – nil up. Fly-half Ian Brooks was controlling much of the play and he scored a couple of penalties as well as a conversion. The Swansea try was also set up by the former Llanelli number 10, when he fed the ball to Jed Evans to run in behind the posts.

The homeside were looking to get in the game and they were sparked in action when a Cam Davies kick ahead was chased down by Carwyn ap Myrddin, but the winger was wrapped up by the Swansea defence.

As the clock edged towards the break the Gogs finally played some of the game in the Swansea half, and they tested the visitors defence for the final 5 minutes of the half. This gave the big home crowd something to shout about and also sent the players into the dressing room with plenty of positives.

Those positives were built on in the start of the 2nd half as RGC looked to get a hold on the game and control the difficult elements of “Storm Desmond”. The pack did a lot of work to rumble towards the Swansea line, and the try-machine Ap Myrddin snuck in for score. Lang added the extras and the Eirias faithful raised the roof.

Lang was getting the ball behind the visitors defence and Cam Davies made a couple of breaks to pile the pressure on the All Whites defence.

It was Davies who claimed the second RGC try when he picked the ball up from the scrum and dashed over the line. Lang was unable to convert a difficult kick in testing conditions.

It was RGC’s game to win and they knew Swansea where on the back foot, the ball and play was all in the visitors half.

Credit must be given to the All Whites defence as RGC the stood up to everything the Gogs threw at them.

The turning point of the game was when Cam Davies went for an optimistic drop-kick in the 72 minute, but he failed to connect with the ball and Swansea booted it clear. Swansea chased the ball and ended up knocking on as they crossed the try-line. The play was called back and from a Swansea scrum the pressure grew on the RGC line and a penalty under the posts was given to the visitors. The boot of Brooks did the damage and edged Swansea 4 points clear.

RGC’s heads didn’t drop and they knew they had at least one last play in them, and they went for it in attack.

The forwards cranked it up and drove straight and hard, and on at least 3 occasions came agonisingly close to crossing the line. The crowd roared them on but the just couldn’t break the defence of Swansea.

The players, coaches and fans went from being on their feet to dropping to their knees in that last couple of minutes, but it everyone will be lifted by the 2nd half performance. Nearly halfway through the season and the young players will have learnt a lot, the important thing is to make sure they build on that experience in the big games to come.