THE last time these two sides met was at the Marian in the last game of the season back in May with a near identical score of 7-52, writes Derek Jones.

Dolgellau 5 Llandudno 54, Admiral National League 1 North

In glorious early September sunshine the visitors got into their stride after a pretty even first 15 minutes to score five first half tries.

The first two push over efforts were scored by outstanding hooker, Jamie Rooney, and both were converted by scrum half James Andrew.

Centre Toby Roberts crossed for the third to make it 0-19, before second row Carwyn Hughes almost put the home side on the scoreboard in the 25th minute.

However the visitors finished the half strongly with two more scores with No.8 Morgan Owen and Toby Roberts with his second, both of which were converted by Andrew to make it 0-33 at half time.

Wing Connah Harding made it 0-40 before Dolgellau scores themselves from a five metre lineout, with hooker Kane Triggs barging over.

However the visitor’s overall strength brought them two further tries to Kel Davies and one to replacement, Jonny Stokes, with the accuracy of Andrew’s boot converting both making the final score 5-54

Ifan Jones made a memorable home debut at wing forward, and Tomos Ifan and Craig Debell came on in the second half and did wel.l on their home debuts.

Dol coach Rob Mason said: “Having only had one pre-season game to get used to the introduction of the new tackle height rule, we were always going to be a bit rusty against last season’s top-five finishers.

“Although we lost by a similar score against Llandudno last season, I feel that there were a lot more positives to take from today’s game.

“We played some good rugby and competed well but unfortunately we had a 10-minute period in the first and second half, where we could have had better game management. This period saw us ship 28 points.

“Overall, we have a good base to work from and look forward to the trip up to Llangefni next weekend.”

On man of the match Ifan Jones he said: “His tackling was excellent all day, he was fantastic at the line-out and was in the middle of everything we did well.”