GLAMORGAN COUNTY HIGH MOTIVE SILVER BALL QUARTER-FINAL
RHYDYFELIN .............. 74 FERNDALE .................... 5
ON WEDNESDAY evening Rhydyfelin and Ferndale faced off in the last of the quarter-finals of the annual Glamorgan County Silver Ball competition, with the winner progressing to face WRU Bowl finalists and Division 3 East A favourites Caerphilly in the last four.
Ferndale came in to the fixture having secured the Division 3C title the previous Saturday, when they recorded their 13th straight bonus-point victory. Meanwhile Rhydyfelin are in pole position to secure the Division 1 East title.
The first chance of points on the night came for Ferndale as Rhydyfelin were guilty of not releasing the ball on halfway. The subsequent penalty fell short and Rhydyfelin took control of the game thereafter.
A dominant Rhydyfelin pack secured possession and after a number of phases winger Chris Tottle was put over out wide for the score. The conversion was successful and soon David Gratton would be lining up his second and again it was wing Chris Tottle who finished off another attack from The Village.
For the majority of the rest of the first half Rhydyfelin’s superior pack was the driving force in keeping the scoreboard ticking over, highlighted by the third try as a lineout 25m out was mauled all the way to the tryline where prop Chris Phillips scored the try.
Another lineout 5m out resulted in another score, this time the Ferndale defence decided not to engage in the maul only for Phillips to bulldoze his way to the line before offloading to hooker Scott Pritchard who bagged his 11th try of the season, converted by Gratton (260).
Ferndale enjoyed a little territory toward the end of the half but couldn’t find a way through the Village defence, and it was Rhydyfelin who finished off another two tries before the half-time whistle. Winger Jordan Rees twice finished off moves to score his 26th and 27th of the season, just five short of the club record for a single season.
The second half saw a number of changes from both sides; however it was more of the same on the scoreboard as the strength in depth of the Division 1 side proved to be too much for the Division 3 champions. Having said that, Ferndale enjoyed a number of periods of possession early on in the half and but for a few lastditch tackles could have finished off some tries of their own.
It was, however, Rhydyfelin who scored the first and second tries of the second half as replacement prop Garret Cann and full back David Gratton kept the scoreboard ticking over (52-0).
To Ferndale’s credit they kept plugging away, making breaks and showing the commitment that’s no doubt been there all season having been so successful in the their league campaign.
On the hour mark they finally got some reward as a period of pressure and penalties finally resulted in a try burrowing over out wide (52-5).
With the game petering out Rhydyfelin scored a few late tries as replacements Martin Wallace, Kyle Perry and Mark Tyler all crossed for scores.
The final conversion by centre Ross Lucas finished off the scoring for the evening and secured Rhydyfelin’s passage to the semi-final.
The semi-finals of the Silver Ball are Treorchy v Tondu (Wednesday, April 12) at Caerphilly RFC and Rhydyfelin v Caerphilly (Wednesday, April 26) at Llanharan RFC.
The final is to be held at Aberavon RFC on Saturday, May 20.