Fixture

What a game! After not experiencing a win since beating Pontyberem 20-3 in our first home game of the season on 8th September the boys managed to overturn a 5-29 deficit just after halftime to beat also relegated St Clears 38-34 in our final game of 2018/19. This was also the Magpies' first win of 2019 after coming close a number of times, including the draw with Carmarthen Athletic a month ago.

After conceding an early penalty to the Saints Tumble hit back to take the lead 5-3 through a try from scrum half Iwan Morgan, the conversion was missed. Any hopes of the Magpies kicking on and building on the lead were dashed by St Clears who raced into a 5-22 lead by half time. Things started to look ominous for the Magpies when less than five minutes into the second half the Saints pack put pressure on the Magpies' eight at a scrum five from which the referee awarded the penalty try. The score was now 5-29 and the Magpies were staring down the barrel of a hammering, there was a choice to be made either front-up or capitulating to their rivals. Fortunately for those of a Tumble persuasion they chose the latter. A quick fire try from the rampaging Nathan Willard saw the score brought back to 12-29 with centre Owain Williams adding the extras. A try for Willard's second row partner Ryan Lewis soon followed making the score 17-29 and suddenly the comeback was on with Tumble starting to play a free flowing running game. Again the Magpies pushed and again they were rewarded with a score when scrum half Morgan darted over for his second try of the game, Williams nailed the conversion and the Magpies were back within five points at 24-29. Tumble were now running the ball at every opportunity and after going through a number of phases, including a bullocking run by Nathan Willard to stretch the Saints defence captain and openside flanker Steffan Owen sprinted over out wide on the right. Owain Williams added a fine conversion to give the Magpies an amazing 31-29 lead. The Magpies were now dominant and making inroads into the St Clears defence at will, after some great link-up play which took Tumble into the opposition half replacement flanker Owain Davies cut a great angle on the charge to power through and dive over under the posts. Owain Williams added the simple conversion to make the score 38-29 with the Magpies having scored 33 unanswered second half points. The Saints were not quite ready to conceed the victory however and after some powerful drives by their forwards they managed to maul their way over the line to pull themselves back to 38-34. Much to the releaf of the Magpies players and supporters the conversion drifted wide of the upright. With the clock ticking down the Saints made their final throw of the dice and were awarded a penalty. The ball was kicked to touch but a superb counter jump at the lineout saw Tumble second row Ryan Lewis claim the ball against the throw. After a few more phases referee Karrim Cosslett blew the final whistle much to the delight of the Tumble players, coaching staff, officials and supporters.

The club would like to thank Gwyn Edwards for the (as always) fantastic match photographs and Joe Rogers of Deadball Line for featuring the game as his game of the week.

Deadball Line Man of the Match: Scott Jones - Tumble RFC.

A copy of the matchday programme can be found at the following link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QpNsErN1CFOEuPXGBum4mB3naZfMeMjh/view?usp=sharing

We now have a well earned rest over the summer. Have a couple of months off boys to recharge the batteries and then come back focussed on making an impact in Division 3 West next season.

Scorers:

Tries - Iwan Morgan x2, Nathan Willard, Ryan Lewis, Owain Davies, Steffan Owen

Ymlaen Y Piod