Fixture

It's a pity when two strong teams such as these meet in the first round of a knock-out competition. It means one of these sides does not get to showcase their ablities against other clubs throughout the country. That, as they say, is the luck of the draw.

Each of these teams took to this match determined they would not be the one to miss out on progressing. It was a full-blooded affair with, for the most part, defences dominating. Scoring opportunities were few but those that did present themselves too often failed due to unusually poor passing, ball handling or infringements. The few chances that were created in the first half mainly fell to Nant but, having created the breaks, the possible scoring pass found touch or was knocked on as often as not.

The game was evenly poised throughout and could have gone either way. An early penalty opportunity was missed by Nant before Caron Davies put Nant ahead on 20 minutes with his first successful kick. It was not until almost half-time that Davies stretched that lead to 6 - 0, when, following sustained pressure by Nant, and repeated infringements by the defence, a yellow card was shown. 

The second half began by following the same pattern as the first until 6 minutes in. A dropped Pwllheli pass on the halfway line was picked up by Nant. Following a ruck, the ball was moved to the wing to full-back Sion Pringle. He raced into the opposition 22 where his lobbed pass inside found Cai Jones who immediately passed back out to Aron Jones to crash over. Davies' conversion gave Nant some breathing space with a 13 - 0 lead.

Much of the rest of the half was again dominated by the defences with neither team able to produce any clear scoring opportunities despite a great deal of hard work being put in.

It was only with a few minutes to go that Nant, having used all of their replacements, put the game beyond doubt. From a scrum 35 metres out, Nant went through several rucks until in the Pwllheli 22. The ball was moved quickly along the backs to full-back Pringle, who had again joined the line on the left wing. His inside passed found Rhydian Jones who skipped past the last of the defence and touched down near the posts. A second conversion by Davies gave the final score of 20 - 0 to Nant.

A hard fought victory for Nant who were pushed all the way by a strong Pwllheli side. It is frustrating that one of them will not be in the draw for the next round.