RGC 39 Llanelli 19
Llanelli made the long journey to Colwyn Bay and gave a good account of themselves. The scoreline was evenly balanced going into the final quarter but the home side powered on to earn a bonus point victory. The visitors must now focus on their next fixture against Bridgend at Parc y Scarlets, a game they very much need to win to start to put some pressure on sides around them in the bottom half of the Premiership.
The visitors started well in the opening 5 minutes having plenty of ball, but credit to RGC’s defence who remained disciplined and didn’t concede any penalties.
It was the homeside that crossed the line first, when Billy McBryde finished of the break with a try. The fly-half also added the conversion against his former side.
Llanelli answered back with a couple of penalties, first from Ioan Hughes penalty, and then a minute later Jonny Lewis struck a big kick from halfway.
When RGC had the ball, they made good use of it making some good yards but the frustrating part was that they left a couple of scoring chances on the field.
Try number too arrived, after Tom Hughes worked some space before setting up Iolo Evans to touchdown in the corner.
The RGC centre Hughes was having a good half, and was creating some space with ball in hand.
Llanelli were using the boot to peg RGC back, and for a spell it became a bit of a kick-fest between both sides. Dion Jones was impreessing with the high ball catches, and he was looking to set up his sides attacking play from deep.
McBryde had an opportunity to extend the lead, but his penalty rattled the post. He did make amends shortly afterwards with a another penalty kick which sailed between the posts.
The visitors did grab a score just before halftime and RGC would have been disappointed in conceding it. Llanelli grabbed the ball from a poor line-out and pressure was put on the home-sides line. It wasn’t long before Tom Phillips crossed over with Hughes converting to make it 17-13 at the break.
Both sides traded penalties in the 2nd half with Hughes hitting a couple for Llanelli and McBryde answering back for RGC. At 17-16 it was very much game on!
The Gogs were looking to find that gap in the visitors defence, but on most occasions the visitors were able to nullify the attacks.
Cam Davies and Tom Hughes did find some space, but once again the chance was spurned when it looked like the try was on.
With 20 minutes to go RGC began to take a hold of the game upfront, and the maul drove over the line ended with an Evan Yardley try. McBryde kicked the conversion
Llanelli were not offering much attacking wise, and they were racking up the penalties for infringements around the breakdown which enable RGC’s pack to take control of the game.
The bonus point try arrived when Andrew Williams smashed his way across the line over, and McBryde took his points tally to 19 for the day with the conversion.
With the game won, the finishing touches were added with replacement hooker George Roberts claiming the 5th try after more good work from the RGC forwards.