5th April '09
Wrexham U15s 25
Colwyn Bay U15s 25
Without our usual
second row Dubi and Uthis ,number eight HJ, Wingers Matt
and Dan Lowndes and utility players Will Broadway and
Tom Hindley ,14 men and the Paulo Lloyd Appreciation
Society set off for the nether regions of Wrexham. With
many of the crew finding themselves in unfamiliar
positions and with a borrowed winger ,we set about
holding our own against a much bigger Wrexham pack.
Play flowed from end
to end but eventually Ethan’s sparkling footwork found a
hole and allowed him to ground one under the posts from
the half way line, casually drop converted by Harry D
before the kicking tee could be produced. Ten minutes
later ‘twinkletoes’ Sheridan bobbed and dived his way
free to touch down our second. Towards the end of he
first half , play got more intense and from a series of
penalties against us for high tackles Wrexham scored
their opener.
Shortly after half
time Wrexham forwards powered over their second , ‘Sean
of the Dead’ came off injured after landing badly on his
neck and the remaining 14 battled on. The game picked up
intensity again and despite Paulo’s trademark ‘lift and
plant’ tackles occurring all over the place Wrexham
forced though another 5 points. Mike Winter replied with
a well aimed penalty and the scores were 15 all.
In the middle of the
second half , something dropped into place and the backs
got it together , with Jordan making some great moves
and coordinated support , a perfectly timed pass put
Mike over for a classic corner try. At the restart Harry
D punted it high caught it on a kind bounce and blitzed
it under the posts unopposed ! 5 points in 20 seconds !!
Wrexham dug deep and
pushed hard resulting in a blitz down the wing and their
fourth try. After the final restart they kept up the
pressure and pinned the Bay in our 22 for ten minutes or
more where ‘Bay defence held fast until the final move
of the match which inched Wrexham’s forwards over to tie
the score 25 – 25 on the final whistle.
Man of the Match was
awarded to Jordan Sheridan for a superb effort in his
new No10 shirt
8th February '09
Colwyn Bay U15 48
Wrexham U15 12
After a week of
indecision about playing conditions due to bad weather ,
Sunday dawned cold and bright with the pitch in top
condition ,and so Wrexham made their way west for our first
meeting in 18 months. With a nearly full squad and renewed
hope after last weekends defeat by Llandudno, Captain Harry
Donegan lead out an optimistic side. It wasn’t long before
the renewed sense of self belief started to work for the
‘Bay lads and Lloyd Jones carried over a well won forwards
try to open the scoreline.
With good hands and good
heart , a steady flow of tries came fro Matt and Dan Lowndes
, Dubi Iwobi, Harry Jones , and Ethan Morris to put the
tally at 38 – 0 by half time.
As soon as play resumed
, Matt Lowndes gave a dazzling footwork demonstration to
run in a corner try from the opposite wing , avoiding at
least 6 defenders on the way ! Having been warned by the ref
that the WRU would demand the match to be abandoned with a
50 points difference , Colwyn Bay took their time to
practice their set plays for most of the second half and a
constantly hopeful Wrexham took advantage of mistakes to run
in 2 well earned tries . With ten minutes to go , the ‘Bay
lads turned up the wick again and put Harry Donegan over for
a well deserved try in the final minutes.
It was a pleasure to see
the lads back to enjoying playing their open flowing game
again . All the players , including new arrivals James
Swinnerton and Sam Durrans had a good match and Man of the
Match was awarded to Dubi for his excellent support work. A
morning’s rugby to make you smile!
23rd November '08
Rhyl U15s 12 Colwyn Bay U15s 22
Amid stinging hail showers 15 ‘Bay lads set
off for an early encounter with old adversaries Rhyl .From
the start the Bay put Rhyl under pressure and pushed play
into their 22 . Several strong lunges toward the try line
were thwarted but eventually the ball was carried over by
Dubi Iwobi for his maiden try . Further pressure from the
‘Bay saw Dan Lowndes over on the farside and just before
half time N0 8 Harry Jones took one over under the posts and
Captain Harry Donegan converted to make it 17 – 0 at the
half time whistle.
Playing uphill in the second half , the
‘Bay seemed to lift off the gas a little and allowed Rhyl to
bring the game to them. For a while Colwyn Bay were making
too many handling mistakes and bad tactical decisions which
allowed Rhyl to slip in two tries and a conversion and it
looked as if the ‘Bay were letting it slip away ( like the
national side yesterday!) but in the last quarter they
regained their discipline and reengaged their ‘Rugby Heads ‘
. A beautifully executed switch pass in the centres and a
series of perfectly timed offloads created a textbook
overlap to put Mike Winter over in the corner .
Coach Bryan Astbury was unable to award a
Man of the Match as a number of players had excellent games
, particularly Jordan Sheridan, Tom Edwards , Owen Field and
both Harry's with good efforts from many others. Big Mac
‘Munch of the Match’ was awarded to Jordan Sheridan for
blowing the Rhyl winger and Harry Jones 2 metres into touch
with one hit!
16th November '08
Llangefni U15 – 19
Colwyn Bay U 15 – 19
Under mild grey Autumn
skies and soft going underfoot Colwyn Bay started in their
usual , slow mode which allowed Llangefni to get 7 points on
the board by the middle of the first half. In fine Captain’s
fashion Harry Donegan lead a strong series of moves towards
Llangefni’s line which resulted in him touching the ball down at the end
of the third prolonged phase. Mike Winter then stepped up
and delighted the crowd with a trick shot conversion ,( off
the post), putting the scores at 7 – 7 at half time.
Llangefni again took the
initiative after half time and put up another 5 points
which shortly prompted Mike Winter to put in a cheeky run
round the outside of Llangefni to the centre of the posts
which he then converted easily ,putting the ‘Bay ahead by a
crucial 2 points. With heads up Ethan and a Lowndes twin
then decided to play soccer and after several kicks and
chips from the halfway line , Ethan touched down behind
Llangefni’s line but the conversion went wide.
It stayed 14 – 12 until
2 minutes from the end when llangefni’s 12 made a strong run
through all of the ‘Bay defence to score under the posts and
convert easily to put the score at 19 – 19 on the final
whistle.
There is a good lesson
to be learnt here : the game is never in the bag till the
final whistle blows! With strong performances
from many of the squad , Man of the Match , rightfully went
to Mike Winter.
26th October '08
CB U15s -
33 v Caernarfon - 10
50mm of rain
on Saturday night had left Brookfield Drive almost unplayable
but most of pitch 3 was above the waterline and the decision was
made to press on regardless . Caernarfon arrived short handed ,
so in the spirit of good rugby , Dan Lowndes and Zac Trevor
volunteered to pull on the red jersey of, the Gwynedd visitors.
The two
evenly matched sides set to the job of keeping on their feet and
play went slowly to and fro for most of the first half with each
side reaching the try line once , only the ‘Bay‘s conversion of
Ethan Morris’s try edging them ahead. Image of the match was
created when Dubi Iwobi , covering back landed on the ball at
speed and put up a wall of water 4 foot high !
After half
time the sky cleared , the rain stopped and both teams found
their feet in the sodden conditions. Caernarfon were first to
score but again failed to convert .Then Harry Jones tried
something new , running directly towards the try line , and it
worked ! The sun came out , heads were up and the ‘cheeky rugby’
began Jordan Sheridan , Mike Winter and Sean Waddington all
found the try line and Oli Edwards and Sean added conversions.
Llandudno
U15s 58 Colwyn Bay U15s 10
Heavy
overnight rain meant we had to decamp this fixture to St David’s
college. Short of many of our North Wales players due to injury
and illness , and with Llandudno at full strength , we struggled
to stop them breaking out , witnessed by a 26 point defecit in
the first half. With a couple of Llandudno key players rested
after half time and the match on a more even keel the‘Bay lads
salvaged some pride with a couple of tries ,but Llandudno’s
relentless pressure meant we were unable to gain any momentum
and for the rest of he match the traffic was all one way. There
were many moments of excellent individual play but Llandudno’s
domination meant we were unable to join it up and get the rugby
flowing.
We welcome
Uthis and Doobie to ‘Bay U15s ,They both put in commendable
efforts on their first run out in white and blue and show good
promise for the future. Captain Harry Donegan was awarded Man of
the Match
