Llangollen booked a place in the 3rd round of the Worthington Cup with an impressive 29-10 win against Abegele. Llan had the worst possible start when the visitors were gifted a try, due to some poor Llan tackling.
From the kick off Abergele continued to pressure the Llan line, until full back Owen Thomas intercepted a pass just inside his own 22m line, he had the legs to run the length of the field to score, Richard Jasper converted and Llan went ahead 7-5 ahead, Llan then started to build on this and began pegging the visitors back in their own half. This paid off when the Llan forwards picked up and drove from successive rucks and No.8 and captain Huw Evans crashed over, once again Jasper converted. The visitors rallied slightly but were limited to a couple of long range penalty attempts that failed. Llan kept the pressure on the visitors and just on the stroke of halftime had a long range penalty attempt of their own, with Jasper off the field receiving treatment Owen Thomas stepped up and made easy work of the kick to see the home side into a comfortable 17-5 lead. The second half started with Llan once again pressuring the Abergele line and it wasn’t long before man of the moment Thomas crossed for his second try of the game, this Jasper was un-successful with the conversion. Llan continued to play the better rugby and pressurise the visitors and try machine Ian Leckie playing in the unusual position of flanker kept up his try a game record, crashing over the visitor’s line. Outside half Jasper converted and the home side had a comfortable 29-5 lead. Abergele finally rallied in the final minutes and managed to sneak a try of their own right at the death, but it was all too little too late as the tower field men booked their place in the 3rd round. Coach Ian Morris said afterwards “apart from the first and last 5mins of the game that was without doubt the best rugby we have played this season, we stuck to our game plan and played to our strengths, which paid clearly paid off. We will now get ready for next week’s league game and wait and see who we draw in the next round of this competition”.
