Bethesda 23 Bettws 7
Bethesda made the last 8 of the SWALEC Bowl after a convincing win over Bettws from the Newport area in South Wales. There was only going to be one winners in this contest the home side had 70% of the territorial advantage and 65% of the possession it was their inability to turn pressure into points that caused them problems. It took 16 minutes for Bethesda to register their first score with a Mathew Parry penalty. Numerous scoring chances were squandered in the first half hour but after 26 minutes Arwyn Griffiths crossed the try line after a fine break by Parry and clever offloading gave supporting Griffiths an easy touchdown. Bethesda seemed to take their foot off the throttle and were caught out on half time when the backs followed up a long kick Bettws counter attacked once behind the Bethesda defence they showed how tries should be scored with an excellent try out wide by Centre Steve Murphy and a touch line conversion by Marcelo Anderson. After all the pressure Bethesda had only a slender 3 point lead at half time. Bettws grew in confidence at the start of the second half and had their best spell of the game but Bethesda were always in control. The home side showed lots of adventure by running their penalties where it would have been much better to kick for goal or a line out. The message must have got thru Mathew Parry kicked one 18 minutes into the second half and repeated his feat on 23 minutes to put Bethesda two scores ahead Credit must be given to Bettws for the way they tackled thru out the game. With the final whistle approaching centre David Thomas made the line with three defenders hanging on to him and Parry converted for a final score of 23-7. With the second half of the season approaching Bethesda will have to become more clinical if they are to proceed to the Millennium Stadium that is now only two games away. Next Week Bethesda play the last game of the northern section against Rhos before going against the Mid Wales teams in March and April. Bethesda 2nds beat Bro Festiniog 7-5
