Llangollen started where they left off on Saturday with a 25 – 10 league over Flint. Llan knew it was going to be a tough afternoon with skipper Huw Evans and regulars Steve Houghton, Wayne Reese, Ian Leckie, Mark Price and Owen Thomas all unavailable.
The first half saw both sides battling against each other and the elements and Llan quickly capitalised when Richard Jasper converted a penalty. He followed this up 10mins later when he crossed the line following some excellent forward play from the Llan pack. This time he could not convert the conversion, but the home side appeared good value for their 8 – 0 lead. Llan continued to absorb heavy Flint forward pressure and applying their own pressure to the Flint line, this pressure saw Richard Jasper find his range with the boot to convert another penalty. Flint managed to get on the score board just before half time when they converted a penalty chance to bring the score to 11 – 3 at halftime. The second half started with Flint pack applying pressure on the Llan line but could not seem to breach the line this was also combated when Llan full back Dai Lawrence intercepted a Flint pass and raced through. The try was not quite in the bag that easily as he seemed to chip the full back early, his pace helped win the foot race to collect the ball and slip a pass to the ever present open side Tom Stevens to cross the line, Jasper was successful with the conversion and the home side led 18-3. The half was then somewhat marred as Llan outside half Richard Jasper appeared to be caught late with an elbow following a clearance kick and had to be taken from the field and sent for hospital treatment to a nasty facial wound. Flint continued to press and after some more powerful attacking play finally crossed the home side’s line, the conversion was successful and brought the score closer at 18-10. The home side though stuck to their task and with 10 mins remaining Scrum half Nick Austin broke clear from a scrum, drew the Flint full back before putting No.8 Martin Thomas in to score his first try of the season. Gareth Jasper picked up where his brother had left off and converted to see the home finish the game 25-10. Afterwards Llan coach Ian Morris said “what a great performance the lads put in today, with so many regular guys missing I was slightly concerned we would struggle but the guys that were there showed they could cope with ease. I have to say I was disappointed with the incident in the second half, Rich was clearly causing them all sorts of problems all game and they chose that way to stop him which I think is sad, but the rest of the lads rallied round and closed the game out, which was justice in itself.”
