A DRAMATIC try from Denbigh full-back and man of the match Gruff Roberts, with less than a minute of normal time remaining, sealed a 28-27 victory over Dolgellau in a thrilling North Wales Intermediate Cup Final at Eirias Park, having trailed all game, and been 24-6 down at half time.

It was an agonising return for Dolgellau, as they lost, also by a single point, to Nant Conwy two years ago in the Senior Cup.

Dolgellau got off to the perfect start and went ahead after just eight minutes when flanker Marius Jones gained hard yardage, before the ball was swept to the left where wing Rhys Lewis’ neat inside pass to centre Dylan Evans saw him over for a try, converted by full-back Henri Roberts.

Denbigh replied with two quick-fire penalties from centre Owain Davies, but from a scrum five metres out, Dolgellau made inroads and second row Rhys Roberts surged over for the score, which was again converted by Henri Roberts to make it 14-6 going into the second quarter.

Roberts added a penalty kick, and as half time approached the full-back again started from deep and set up skipper Gerwyn Thomas’ clever dummy to feed centre Dylan Evans for his second try. Roberts’ conversion made it 24-6 at the break.

Three minutes into the second half, centre Owain Davies put over his third penalty to narrow the gap to 24-9, before both sides lost a player each to yellow cards.

This upset Dolgellau’s poise, and after quarter of an hour wing Kieran Bonar made ground down right side to find full-back Gruff Roberts to break through to score and Davies added the conversion.

As Dolgellau’s discipline crumbled, Denbigh took full advantage and they were awarded a penalty try as Dolgellau collapsed a five-metre scrum, just as Denbigh scrum half Jamie Winning was about to score. Davies added the conversion to make it 24-23 with 10 minutes to play

As tension mounted, Dolgellau struck back from the kick-off, with Henri Roberts slotting over a penalty to make it 27-23.

Then, with six minutes to go, Roberts saw a similar effort rebound off the post.

With time running out Denbigh resumed territorial dominance and pressurised Dolgellau close to their line through a series of forward drives and mauls.

Gruff Roberts then supplied the coup de grace as he went over in the corner to take them into the lead for the very first time.

The conversion attempt from the touchline narrowly failed, but Denbigh secured the restart kick and used their forwards to keep possession and close out the game.