Fixture

Despite giving a determined defensive performance Dinbych failed to stop COBRA gaining a bonus point victory. The hosts owed their success to their bulky forwards who dominated possession through their power scrum and the ability of the team to use their physicality in contact to generate multiple phases of play which stretched the Dinbych defence to its limits.

The pattern of the game was set in the opening ten minutes when COBRA maintained possession in the Dinbych half and after a series of short range scrums and driving mauls scrum half Aled Davies touched down for an unconverted try.                     
Shortly after this Dinbych suffered a serious setback when prop Chris Griffiths was injured when a retreating scrum collapsed. The game was halted for ten minutes as he received medical attention before being removed from the pitch. Dinbych then surprised their hosts when Dan O’Sullivan wrong footed the COBRA defence on a strong run from halfway to go over for a try and the conversion by outside half Tommy Jones gave them the lead. COBRA then regained the lead when Dinbych conceded a penalty 25 metres out with Llywellyn Williams converting it successfully.

Despite constant pressure as COBRA continued to dominate both possession and territory Dinbych counter-attacked at every opportunity, they regained the lead when full back Gruff Roberts made a solo break from halfway to cross for an unconverted try. The visitors closed the first half scoring when wing Will Jones crossed in the corner for Dinbych’s third try which gave them a 17 points to 8 lead at half time.

It came as no surprise that Dinbych’s fine defensive performance in the first half highlighted by the aggressive tackling of all and especially the back row and midfield backs had taken its toll on their energy reserves which allowed COBRA to dominate the early stages of the second half. Dinbych’s task was made more difficult when flanker Ruben Verdoes who had given an outstanding defensive display was yellow carded for a high tackle with Llywellyn Williams kicking the penalty.

COBRA went into the lead when flanker Chris Morris went over for a try at the posts with Llywellyn Williams adding the conversion. He then kicked a penalty to increase COBRA’s lead to 21 points to 17. The hosts then made the game safe towards the end with two tries, the first by No.8 Iwan Vaughan and the second by Aled Davies, both converted by Llywellyn Williams.