Division One North: Ruthin 28 Llangefni 10
Sep 13 2010 by Our Correspondent, Daily Post
AT Ruthin they’re justifiably proud of their Welsh international prop Eifion Lewis-Roberts – and now they’re getting excited about his brother.
But unlike the giant Sale Sharks front-row, Sion Roberts is a winger – albeit a powerful hard-running one.
He’s a few stone lighter than elder brother Eifion but also a few yards quicker. He’s strong too and he showed both qualities in scoring two fine tries as Ruthin earned a hard-fought bonus point win over a dogged Llangefni side at Cae Ddol.
The Blues certainly began with a bang with their rampaging back-row of Clwyd Jones, Jon Meldrum and Lee Pope leading the charge and Llangefni were at full stretch.
Scrum-half Will Davies missed a penalty but the pressure told after 20 minutes when centre Gethin Hughes crossed under the posts with Davies converting.
Ruthin doubled their lead from a lineout, Chris Lewis’ catch followed by a drive over the line by hooker Gary Teeson with Davies converting handsomely.
Slick handling by Ruthin’s backs carved out space for right wing Roberts and his pace and power did the rest with Davies again converting.
Llangefni rallied as No8 Iestyn Dafydd galvanised them with some charging runs and right on half time a series of drives saw prop Sion Arron crash over.
This sparked a bust-up which saw Ruthin lose back-row forwards Clwyd Jones and Lee Pope to the sin bin with Llangafni’s Mark Pritchard also yellow carded.
It also took the wind out of Ruthin’s sails as the second half started with Llangefni 21-5 down and battering away but it was 25 minutes into the half before prop Iwan Evans smashed over on the blind side.
The visitors threatened a comeback but handling errors cost them dear and when left wing Huw Parry pounced on a dropped pass, Ruthin moved the ball right where Sion Roberts thundered over with Davies adding another well-struck conversion.
Cefni boss Dewi Redvers Jones was left with a frustrated feeling at the end, saying: “From our point of view it wasn’t a great performance. Last year we did struggle at times, and while we thought we had a really good pre-season this time, we are still making far too many unforced errors.
“We allowed Ruthin to control the game for too long in the first half, and while we did come back at them in the second, you can’t gives sides like Ruthin a 21-0 head start.
“There are still some positives to come from the game because we did well when we kept hold of the ball and we came back at them well, but we have just got to cut these mistakes out of our game.”
