Pwllheli edge tight contest
TWO tries from centre John Pugh and the boot of Osian Parry Jones guided champions Pwllheli to a hard-fought 17-12 win at Caernarfon in Division One North last Saturday.
Following a bright opening by both, from a five-metre scrum an inside pass from Cofis stand-off Carwyn Roberts was taken at pace by winger Iolo Hughes who bisected the defence and grounded close to the posts. He also converted.
Pwllheli slowly began to retain possession to good effect with Nick Butterworth kicking some telling touch-finders but the lineout was not functioning smoothly enough to trouble Caernarfon unduly.
The Cofis were hampered midway through the opening period when fly-half Roberts had to leave the field injured.
Soon afterwards, a Butterworth half-break and release saw Pugh run on to the ball at pace from 20 metres out to wrong-foot the cover and score. Parry Jones added the extras to tie matters at the interval.
The second period was barely four minutes old when a speculative clearance kick was fielded by Pwll winger Robin Hughes Jones, who then set off at pace and weaved his way to within a few metres of the line before being brought to earth. However, he had the presence of mind to off-load to Pugh who dived in to score his second. Parry Jones’ boot again bisected the posts.
Caernarfon’s injury woes continued, losing replacement stand-off Kelvin Morris and centre Dafydd Roberts to knee injuries and although their deputies coped admirably the fluidity required in attack was not quite as evident.
However, midway through the half a charge-down nearly brought rewards for hooker Gareth Pritchard before the resultant scrum saw the ball fed wide to Dylan Gwyn, who wriggled out of numerous attempted tackles to touch down.
The conversion drifted wide and following a ruck infringement the Cofis found themselves once more five points adrift when Parry Jones converted the penalty.
The one-man advantage Caernarfon had for the final few minutes was of no significance as the Pwllheli rush defence thwarted every possible attack at base to ensure they took the spoils yet again. ● Saturday’s games - D1 North: Llangefni v Caernarfon, Pwllheli v Llandudno. WRU Bowl: Pwllheli 2nds v Denbigh 2nds; Bangor Yth v Pwllheli Youth.