Drybrook Rugby Club

Drybrook welcomed Welsh Division 1 East Central side Llantwit Fardre to the Mannings on a hot Saturday afternoon for a match played over three 30 minute periods.

The opening 5 minutes were all Drybrook who put together multiple phases to stretch the Llantwit Fardre defence. An attempted offload in the tackle didn’t go to hand which allowed the visitors to breakout from their 22, taking play to halfway. An unprotected blindside was fully exposed by the Llantwit scrum half who scampered home leaving a difficult conversion.

The try came as quite a shock to the Drybrook XV after such a promising start.

Drybrook quickly regained possession and took the game to the visitors, but unforced errors halted any progress.

On 15 minutes Drybrook lost the services of prop Mitch Hale leading to Llantwit Fardre gaining dominance in the scrum.

A penalty kicked to the Drybrook 22 led to Llantwit enjoying a sustained amount of pressure, Drybrook didn’t help their cause with the loss of Neil Morgan to the sin bin for an infringement in the red zone. A tactical change was enforced which meant the return of Joe Tingle to the Drybrook ranks.

Drybrook did extremely well to hold out Llantwit after a series of 5m scrums, then a knock by the Llantwit 10 gave possession back to Drybrook, who managed to gain a penalty to clear their lines.

A deliberate knock from the visitors outside half led to him being sin binned & Drybrook kicking the resulting penalty to the edge of their 22.

Quick line out ball was sent out to the awaiting Danny Price and the flanker brushed away two would be tackles before sending the ball wide. The visitors defence held firm and play got brought back to the centre where skipper Ben Large put in a neat grubber kick for outside centre Mitch Baldwin to pick up & go between the sticks making the conversion a formality.

Llantwit Fardre started the 2nd 30 much the brighter of the two sides, only some solid defence from Drybrook kept them at bay.

Drybrook then managed to get a foothold in the match & keep possession for a long period of time in the visitors half, but some physical defence kept them out.

Both sides lost a man to the bin, the visitors lock forward for too many infringements at the ruck & Drybrook’s Danny Price for enthusiastically agreeing with the referees decision to bin the opposition.

Fardre attempted to run the ball out of their 22 only for the winger to knock on & gift possession back to Drybrook.

After several phases deep in the visitors 22 Dean Jelf managed to crash over the line with Andrew Milner knocking over the conversion to give Drybrook a 14-5 lead going into the last 30 minute period.

Drybrook started the 3rd period well, Fardre committing to many errors at the breakdown allowing Drybrook to apply plenty of pressure.

Mid way through, quick ball was spread to the Fardre full back who scorched in for a try from his own 10 metre line.

The rest of the 3rd was competed evenly & physically, with Drybrook seeing out the victory. It was good to see the return of Joe Tingle to the Drybrook ranks, Ben Large was stand out performer leading his side well throughout.

Drybrook XV; Andy Milner, Luke Roberts, Sam Peaper, Mitch Baldwin, Jack Freeman, Ben Large (Capt), Tom Treherne, Mitch Hale, Craig Boughton, Dean Jelf ,Will Greenway, Glen Nott, Mitch Bourne, Danny Price, Neil Morgan.
Used replacements; Dean Large, James Smith, Luke Fisher, Joe James, Joe Tingle, Alex Smailes, Connor Parry, Jake Bourne, Matt Freeman.

Drybrook next welcome Hartpury to the Mannings Friday evening for a 6:30 kick off.