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Dolgellau 27.v.28 Denbigh
                            [North Wales Intermediate Final] 13.05.2017

A dramatic try from Denbigh full-back, and man of the match Gruff Roberts, with less than a minute of normal time remaining, sealed a memorable victory in a thriller of a match at Eirias Park, having trailed Dolgellau all game, and significantly by 24-6 at half time.  It was an agonising return here for Dolgellau, as they lost, also by a single point, to Nant Conwy two years ago in the Senior Cup.

Dolgellau got off to the perfect start and went ahead after eight minutes. Flanker Marius Jones gaining some hard yardage, the ball being swept to the left where wing Rhys Lewis’ neat inside pass to centre Dylan Evans saw him over. Full-back Henri Roberts converted to put Dolgellau 7-0 ahead.  Denbigh replied with two quick fire penalties to centre Owain Davies to make it 7-6 after a quarter of an hour, but from a scrum five metres out from the Denbigh line, Dolgellau made inroads towards the try- before line and second row Rhys Roberts surged over for the score. Again Henri Roberts added the conversion to make the score 14-6 going into the second quarter. 

Henri Roberts added a penalty after half an hour,a huge kick from halfway, and as half time approached, the full-back started from deep and set up Marius Jones going forward, and skipper Gerwyn Thomas’ clever dummy to feed centre Dylan Evans in for his second try of the game. Roberts’ conversion made the half time score 24-6 to Dolgellau.

Three minutes into the second half, Denbigh centre Owain Davies put over his third penalty to narrow the gap to 24-9 before both sides lost a player each to yellow cards. This upset Dolgellau’s poise, and after quarter of an hour wing Kieran Bonar made ground down right side to find full-back Gruff Roberts to break through to score. Davies added the conversion to make the score 24-16.  As Dolgellau’s discipline crumbled, Denbigh took full advantage and were awarded a penalty try as Dolgellau collapsed a 5 metre scrum just as Denbigh scrum half Jordan Wynne was about to score. Davies added the conversion to make it a one point game at 24-23 to Dolgellau with ten minutes to play

With the tension mounting Dolgellau struck back straight from the kick-off, with Henri Roberts slotting over a penalty, to make it 27-23 and with only six minutes to go, Roberts saw a similar effort rebound off the post. Denbigh seized the initiative going into the last minute as no.8 Niall Duke took a quick tap penalty and their backs released full back Gruff Roberts in for a spectacular winning score.

Referee : Sion Wynne