Fixture

The Magpies welcomed Betws RFC to Parc y Mynydd Mawr on Saturday afternoon for the first game of their Specsavers Division 3 West B campaign. After last year’s relegation Tumble were determined to start the season with a win and it duly came with a five try 38-14 bonus point victory over a hard working Betws RFC side.

Fielding a strong looking squad which included nine additions from last season through Youth graduates Dafydd Griffiths, Osian Flint and Morgan Davies plus Nicky Allinson, Richard Davies, Steven Hewitt, Gareth Beynon, Tom Miles and Mike Powell who were all returning to the Black and White hoops, the Magpies found themselves in a battle early on against a committed and determined Betws side. After unsuccessful penalty attempts for both sides it was the Magpies who broke the deadlock after 19 minutes when hooker Rhys Lewis went over after following up a break by wing Mike Edwards. The conversion was missed but the Magpies extended their lead to 8-0 ten minutes later with a well struck penalty from centre Owain Williams. We now went into a period where each side decided to give the opposition scoring opportunities by conceding penalties approximately every three minutes. First Betws brought the score back to 8-3, then it was 11-3 to Tumble through a Williams penalty, 11-6, 14-6 with a Williams penalty before Betws made it 14-9 with another well struck penalty attempt on half time. The first half had seen some enterprising and promising play from the Magpies and in truth the score could have been more if the final pass had gone to hand on a couple of occasions.

Within two minutes of the restart Betws conceded another penalty but Williams pushed his attempt wide of the upright to keep the score 14-9 to the Magpies. In the fiftieth minute of the game Tumble found themselves down to 14 men when hooker Rhys Lewis was yellow carded. Betws were awarded a penalty right under the posts which their place kicker unexpectedly missed having kicked superbly to that point. Being a man down seemed to focus Tumble’s play and they started to get the upper hand in the game. Another near missed penalty attempt was made up for when outside half Steven Hewitt danced his way through the Betws defence to score near the posts. The conversion was missed making the score 19-9 to the Magpies after 59 minutes. A rolling maul from the Tumble pack nearly resulted in a further score in a period where Tumble were starting to look threatening every time they had the ball. After 34 minutes replacement full back Aled Price showed his athleticism and pace to score a superb individual try from nearly 40 metres out. Spotting a gap Price beat a number of would be tacklers to go over under the posts. Williams added the conversion to make the score 26-9 to the Magpies. One more try was now needed for the bonus point and this duly arrived when centre Williams cut a great angle to take a pop pass from Hewitt to go over under the posts and secure the four try bonus point. Williams picked himself up to duly convert and make the score 33-9. The Magpies were now in dominant mood and a fifth try arrived late on when evergreen lock Gareth Beynon went over in the right-hand corner. Showing that he still has a great engine and work rate Beynon was at hand to support well and get over the whitewash. Williams was unlucky to see his conversion attempt cannon back off the upright from a wide angle a full seven minutes into injury time. With everyone expecting referee Thomas Carew to blow his whistle for full time he still found another four minutes injury time which was enough for Betws to get over the whitewash for a consolation converted try, final score 38-14.

A copy of the match day programme can be found at the following link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GLqpreCXl5bxIcbW6nC96ocjJSfdqPAa/view?usp=sharing

Coaches man of the match: Liam Willard who put in a good account of himself playing at tight head prop.

Match Sponsor: Prefix Systems – many thanks for your support.

Also, a big thank you to the Ball Boys / Girls – Regan Jones (Under 8s), Alys-Fflur Evans, Dylan Pitman, Henley Allen and Jamie Payne (Under 9s) whose help retrieving balls and manning the scoreboard was very much appreciated. Hope to see you all again soon.

Next week it’s a Cwm Gwendraeth derby as the Magpies make the short trip to Cae Carwyn James to face near neighbours Cefneithin RFC (kick-off 2.30pm). Come and support the boys.

Ymlaen Y Piod