Fixture

The Magpies suffered heartbreak on Saturday afternoon in Admiral Division 3 West B when a last minute try by Amman United clinched a thrilling match for the visitors 34-39. The visitors started strongly and were 0-14 up within 5 minutes with two smartly taken tries. It looked ominous for the home side but much to Tumble's credit they struck back with a Osian Flint driving maul try on 9 minutes. The conversion attempt was dragged wide by outside half Steven Hewitt, who had suffered a knock to his ankle in the opening minutes. Seven minutes later the Magpies were back within two points, a scrum 30 metres out saw the ball passed to outside half Hewitt, who drew his opposite man and released young centre Kian O'Reilly. O'Reilly beat him man before rounding the covering defender for a superb try. The conversion was again missed, but the score was 10-14 and the game was on. On 26 minutes, the Magpies took the lead for the first time in the game when openside flanker, Steffan Owen dived over for a well worked team try. The conversion attempt was true from Hewitt (despite him wearing one boot) making the score 17-14. Tumble now had the bit between their teeth and went over for another try on the cusp of half time. An Amman attack on the Tumble 22, saw the ball fall into the possession of Magpies wing Sam Jones who distributed to Hewitt. I kick up field saw O'Reilly outpace the Amman defenders and ground the ball to the right of the posts. Hewitt added the conversion to make the score 24-14 which is how it was at the interval, despite some pressure from Amman for the last 3 minutes of the half. Plenty of positives for the last 30 minutes of the first half, including strong running and offloading ability of debutant centre Sam Davies.

The second half saw Amman play with real intend and Tumble struggle to to raise their game to match their opponents. An early penalty for Amman quickly lead to a unconverted try which closed the gap to 24-22 after 50 minutes played. The Magpies managed to counter this with a try of their own, a hat trick score from young O'Reilly. Drive after drive saw the Magpies pound the Amman line, before the ball was shifted to the backs and O'Reilly crashed over under the posts. Hewitt added the extras to make the score 31-22 and give some breathing space. The lead was however short-lived further Amman pressure in the Tumble 22 saw them break the defensive line easily and score a try out of nothing, 31-29. It was doubly frustrating seeing the effort Tumble had just put into O'Reilly's last score. The Tumble defence was looking porus, and continuous Amman pressure was seeing them make inroads into Magpies territory. They could have easily have scored another try at this point but not for a superb cover tackle at the corner flag from young fullback Dafydd Thomas. On 62 minutes Amman retook the lead with a try from a driving maul, the conversion was pulled wide, 31-34. On 67 minutes a penalty from Hewitt pulled the score level at 34-34. With Amman continuing to pressurise the Tumble defence it was no shock, but heart breaking none the less when Amman went over for an unconverted pick and drive try deep into injury time. A disappointing result with the team not really capitalising on the strong wind that was at their backs during the second half. Defensive lapses in the second half put pay to the good work and fine tries scored in the first. Some hard work to put in on the training field this week before the visit of New Dock Stars RFC to Parc y Mynydd Mawr next Saturday, kick off 2.30pm.

A copy of the matchday programme cab be found at the following link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YAR_FLKFUZaINp03Pqhk836RsGFJdt4N/view?usp=sharing

Ymlaen Y Piod