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22 April 2018 / Club News

Tylorstown v Ferndale Match Report

Tylorstown – 57

 

Ferndale – 7

 

Top of the table Tylorstown played bottom club Ferndale in the eagerly awaited derby game between the two Rhondda Fach sides. Tylorstown were completely dominant and ran in ten tries to post a bonus point victory.

 

From the first play of the game, Tylorstown showed attacking intent with outstanding flanker Adam Phillips starting an attack which saw the ball passed through the hands of centres Scott Thomas and Jordan Williams to release wing Kieran Richards. From this position on the Ferndale 22 metre line there were a series of rucks which eventually led to captain Chris Lloyd scoring in the corner.

 

This was the template for the rest of the game. Tylorstown’s backs looked very sharp indeed and passed the ball crisply and accurately. Throughout the game, Ferndale struggled to contain the exciting home backs although veteran centre Gareth Clements and scrum half Luke Evans tackled well in difficult circumstances.

 

The home backs were able to exploit holes in the Ferndale defence due to the dominance of the Tylorstown set piece. The front row of Marcus Chapman, Jordan Willis and Ashley Thomas were too powerful for the Ferndale three but to their credit Ferndale did not take the easy option and go passive as so many other sides have done this season.

 

Second row Dai Hefford was in superb form all afternoon as a ball carrier and distributor along with Lloyd, Phillips, Ashley Thomas and flanker Morgan John. Prop Thomas was destructive in the loose and was instrumental in setting up a try for centre Williams who showed his pace and went under the posts for a try converted by outside half Chris Harris.

 

Flanker Phillips caught the restart and showed his power and determination along with second row Robert Hemming to gain ground with lovely off loads in the tackle to cause Ferndale lots of problems. Scrum half Dylan Lewis fed Harris and again the ball went wide to Richards who passed back inside to centre Williams who kicked ahead for Adam Phillips to score the try that he started. Harris converted.

 

To Ferndale’s credit they stemmed the try count for 15 minutes with Tylorstown perhaps trying too much after the excellent start.

 

A terrific pass from centre Scott Thomas took out three defenders and wing Chris Griffiths was set to score in the corner only for an illegal tackle to thwart his efforts on the line. Instead of the try out wide the referee rightly awarded a penalty try and the offending player was sent to the sin bin and Tylorstown led 26 – 0 at the interval.

 

Immediately after the interval Tylorstown’s exciting full back Luke Thomas showed his pace which provided Griffiths with the chance to score. As the second half progressed it was abundantly clear that Thomas was intent on getting his hands on the ball and run. In truth, Ferndale could not contain him.

 

With Ferndale clearly tired, Tylorstown capitalised. Again, the backs exploited the weak defensive efforts of the visitors. Flanker Morgan John made holes in the defence and off loaded to second row Hemming who scored under the posts. Harris added the extras.

 

Full back Thomas then scored two superb tries displaying his pace and skill to bring 50 points up for the home side. Centre Williams scored the final try, benefitting from a break from full back Thomas

 

Again, to Ferndale’s credit, they rallied and scored a consolation try in the last ten minutes of the game.

 

Tylorstown now enter a very exciting period where they have every opportunity to win the league as long as other sides don’t permit a multitude of players for the mid-week fixtures still to come.

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