Fixture

Dolgellau take early points in this year’s league with a well fought contest against former division one Mold on the Marian this afternoon.

Jake Hellawell (Capt) won the toss and elected to play with the strong wind to our backs for the first period. This played dividends with Dolgellau's Dafydd Roberts forcing the visitors deep into their half through good use of the boot.

The Mold front eight had early dominance in the scrum but soon started to tire giving Dolgellau a better platform, particularly in the later stages of the game. Dolgellau were first to score with Dafydd Jones taking a short run down the left touchline to put Mold on the defensive. The Dolgellau pack sensed the score was on and their pick and drive game resulted in Rhys Lewis crossing to ground the ball close to the left corner, Henri Tomos Roberts added the conversion points to put Dolgellau seven points to the good.

A number of line breaks in midfield should have resulted in further points but the wet and windy conditions hampered Dolgellau's efforts. Mold were defensively very strong and managed to thwart the Dolgellau advances. A penalty in the last moments of the first half handed Dolgellau three further points from the boot of Henri Tomos Roberts from 40m. The score at half time was 10:0 to Dolgellau.

Dolgellau added to their points tally through two unconverted tries. The first was from a deft kick by Dafydd Roberts, collected by Henri Tomos Roberts, who outpaced the cover defense to score from 60m. Osian Owen scored from another kick off the boot of Dafydd Roberts, Osian Owen kicked the loose ball through, winning the chase to score in the left corner.

With twenty-five minutes to go, Mold started to pile on the pressure. Their driving maul worked very well, resulting in territorial advantage and a platform to attack the Dolgellau line. The Dolgellau forwards were under the cosh, but put in a huge shift to keep Mold at bay. Dafydd George (man of the match) was outstanding with a huge work rate. Rhys Lewis, Tim Jones, Aron Jones, Jake Hellawell, Jay Evans and Dafydd Jones were very impressive as was Celt Lewis in his first league game for Dolgellau. 

Mold pressure however resulted in an inevitable and well deserved converted try to start their comeback attempt.

With their tails up, Mold pressed the Dolgellau defensive line. Dafydd Roberts was yellow carded with ten minutes to go following a repeat offside ruling. Dolgellau was reduced to thirteen a few minutes later when Lewis Jones was caught up at the bottom of a ruck. The offence occurred on the five metre line and the Ref considered a penalty try was required bringing the score line to 20:14.

Dolgellau, now two men down, were placed under tremendous pressure. Elis Smith took on the duties of the nine with the Dolgellau scrum holding firm. Despite being significantly advantaged in the back line, Mold elected to challenge up front. The home boys threw everything into their defense to repel the Mold final attacking efforts.

A great start to the season, well done.

Tries: Rhys Lewis, Henri Tomos Roberts, Osian Owen
Con: Henri Tomos Roberts
Pen: Henri Tomos Roberts