Gogs left with bonus
RGC head coach Mark Jones said he was “as happy as I can be with a defeat” after his side left Carmarthen Quins with a losing bonus point in a 25-22 loss.
The result ensured Gogs stay three points clear at the Principality Premiership West summit with one round of first phase matches remaining.
Last Friday brought RGC’s first loss in 12 outings, while it was a seventh straight victory for second-place Quins. Jones felt his side competed well.
“I’m as happy as I can be with a defeat,” he said. “It’s a big point and a brilliant effort from the players against a top Quins side. The four players who came in from the North Wales clubs did well and the other players looked after them.
“It is difficult to single out any individuals as they all performed, but I thought Alex Schwarz controlled our game, Tiaan Loots did the dirty work in attack and more importantly defence, and Tim Grey led well from the front. The players train hard with skills and conditioning and we know that comes into play during the last 15 minutes of games.”
The home side began to dominate the forwards arm-wrestle from the opening minute with a big scrum and clearly they took confidence from it. It was soon 3-0 when Aled Thomas landed a penalty.
RGC began to get some ball and worked their way up the field, with Schwarz controlling things well. They would have been disappointed at not putting points on the board and when Quins broke down the field the visitors had to scramble a defence. To make mat- ters worse, Thomas extended the lead for Carmarthen with another penalty. The home side were increasing the pressure up front and they tested RGC with a number of driving mauls. The visitors managed to keep them out, but the problems increased when Joe Simpson was shown a yellow card. Quins fans felt the try was coming, as once again their team drove forward. The line was crossed after some more pressure and scrum-half Ifan Beynon-Thomas darted over for the touchdown.
Eleven points down and a player short as well, RGC expected a tough 10 minutes but credit to the West Conference leaders who managed to keep the ball and play in the Quins’ half of the field.
Another break from Quins following a knock-on caused more panic in the RGC defence, but Dion Jones snuffed out the danger with a super cover tackle. Jones then got some points on the board for RGC with a penalty just before they were back to a full side. The Gogs finished the half in a positive manner with some good phases of play, but could not break the Quins’ tackles.
The RGC lineout began to work well in the second half, which was giving Schwarz a platform to build some play with the back-line. Quins were the ones to get the next try, though.
After some more pressure from the pack, a clever kick along the ground set up the score with Steff Marshall touching down, Thomas adding the extras.
Jacob Botica and Tom Hughes came off the bench and both began to make an impact as the physical Quins defence began to tire. It was Hughes who played a part in the RGC try. Winger Harri Evans broke down the line before passing to centre Hughes and he set up Dion Jones to run in against his former side. Botica added the conversion.
The game fired into life minutes later when Hughes scored a try and when Botica added the conversion RGC made it 18-17 to the delight of the travelling supporters. With eight minutes on the clock both sides felt they had a chance to win the game, but it was the home team that had the ball and opted to kick to touch with a couple of penalties looking for that line-out and driving maul combination. RGC managed to keep the Quins out a couple of times, but the referee gave the hosts a penalty try late in proceedings. Credit to RGC, who still played to the final whistle and after Hughes ripped the ball from a Quins player the following break resulted on a two-on-one attack and Afon Bagshaw finished with a try in the corner to claim the losing bonus point.