Llangollen’s recent league form escaped them on Saturday as they went down 17-10 to South Wales side Ynysowen in the 3rd round of the Worthington cup.
In a hard fought contest both sides spent the first 15mins battling for field position. The Llan pack clearly had the upper hand when it came to the set piece putting the visitors under pressure in the scrum and lineout but is was the south Wales outfit that drew first blood converting a penalty chance. Ynysowen extended their lead, when some good loose work from their pack provided quick ball which was used by their outside half and he seemed to ghost through the home sides defence to score under the posts, with the try converted Ynysowen had a comfortable 10-0 lead. Llan continued to cause problems for the visitors at the set piece and it was further good work from the pack that saw winger Ian Leckie setup to score in the corner and pull the Tower Field side back into the game, Last weeks point’s machine Owen Thomas failed with the conversion attempt. Llan continued with the pressure and were now camped in the visitor’s half launching attack after attack, the visitors defence valiantly held until Llan number 8 Huw Evans finally got the ball over the line, Thomas missed again with the conversion. With the half drawing to a close Ynysowen launched one more attack and what seemed to be a carbon copy of the first try their outside half split the Llan defensive line to score, he converted his own try to make it 17-10 at half time. This is how it stayed for the rest of the second half with both sides battling to score but neither managing to finally breech the others defence. Coach Ian Morris said “we had the possession and we had the upper hand in the set piece but we did not use it to our advantage. I take nothing away from Ynysowen we have played against such a well organised and aggressive defence this season that is what I feel won them the game, all our guys played their hearts out and were disappointed to have lost. We will now focus all our attention on our league campaign and get the boys focused on what must be achieved”.
