“This was the third meeting of these two sides in the past two seasons with North Wales coming out on top on the previous two occasions. The North Wales players knew that this would be a hard fought encounter as Lancashire are always strong given the size of the catchment area and the quality of its feeder clubs.
The first fifteen minutes were keenly contested around the halfway line, with both sets of forwards testing each other and wing-forwards Alex Pope and Dafydd Jones providing constant on-the-shoulder support to bruising carries by Max Davies, Sion Hughes and Callum Mitchell.
As the game wore on, the North Wales pack began to dominate its much larger rivals with a mixture of well honed technique and high fitness levels. In particular the set- piece at scrum and lineout were superb, with Lancashire being driven backwards and second row Oli Suter and hooker Luke Williams dominating the lineout.
Towards the end of the first half, Lancashire began to concede an increasing number of penalties at the breakdown and were punished by the boot of Osian Jones who pegged them back in the corners, from where North Wales were unlucky not to score from a well driven maul which ended in a knock-on whilst crossing the line.
However, Lancashire’s relief was short lived as from the ensuing scrum they were driven off their ball and Tom Davies quickly released Dave Bowen to crash over next to the posts after a trademark barnstorming run. The try was duly converted by Osian Jones.
At half time, North Wales made a number of changes, particularly in the pack, to allow some less experienced players to gain some valuable game time at this level. Lancashire also made several changes. The number of simultaneous changes in hindsight was perhaps challenging as the second half was much more evenly contested, with the Lancashire pack exerting considerable pressure at the set-piece which consequently allowed their back-line to look far more dangerous with clean ball. However, the North Wales back-line held its shape with captain Rhys Williams leading the defence with some bone-crunching tackling.
The second half was scoreless and at the final whistle North Wales were deserved victors, but all credit to the Lancashire players who battled hard right up to the end in what was an excellent game, played with exemplary spirit.
The result and the way in which the team played, particularly in the first half was a significant improvement on the previous outing when North Wales narrowly lost to Yorkshire and bodes well for the future.”
