DIVISION ONE EAST

DOWLAIS ..................... 18 BLAENAVON ................. 8

A MUCH-NEEDED victory for Dowlais this week against Blaenavon at home.

The first half was a slow one. While the vast majority of the half was played in Blaenavon’s half, in fact, they didn’t even enter Dowlais’ half until the last five minutes or so, Dowlais ended the half 5-0 down.

This can be put down to lots of little mistakes (including many knockons, giving away penalties and botched touchdowns to name a few) adding up and making Dowlais’ many trips to the Blaenavon 22 ultimately worthless.

These fruitless attempts and a late first half try from Chris Davies, leaving Dowlais 5-0 down, lowered hopes for the second half and the game as a whole.

However minutes into the second half, shortly after a penalty from Steve James, Dowlais came screaming down the left wing and scored a try courtesy of Tom Griffin.

After a successful conversion, once again from Steve James, hopes were at a high once again.

An unconverted try from Cameron Trowbridge and another penalty from Steve James later, victory seemed all but inevitable, and that it was.

After only netting themselves a penalty courtesy of Dan Pearce, and barely missing out on a losing bonus point via a penalty, Blaenavon were defeated.

While on paper, the score would suggest a great performance, there are still plenty of things to be learnt from this game. While the tries that they did score were undoubtedly great, the uncountable missed opportunities were definitely a shame. Chances need to be taken while they’re there going forward.

Knock-ons appeared to be a problem as one of the constant reasons for failed tries.

Either way, going into the final stretch of the season, any victory sets a good precedent, so for the moment, a mid to high final league placement looks promising for Dowlais to achieve.