PWLLHELI travelled to Llandudno on Saturday with a depleted squad through illness and unavailability and knowing that their opponents had reached a 10 game winning run in Division One North.

The last league match they lost was at home to Nant Conwy in early November, and their success is reflected in their fourth place position in the league table.

The contrasting styles of the two teams was evident throughout the match and this was also reflected in a 15-17 win for the visitors.

The dominant home forwards controlled much of the first half activity and the pressure on the visitors’ defence after 30 minutes resulted in the opening score.

The Pwllheli tight head knocked the ball on two metres from the try line whilst defending, and his action was deemed deliberate and a yellow card and a penalty try harshly awarded to the visitors.

In injury time, a penalty for offside was awarded to the hosts on the 25 metre line and was duly converted by Ryan Pike to increase the score to 10-0 in their favour.

The second period opened with Pwllheli counter attacking very effectively.

They punched a few holes in the home defence and eventually the ever-alert full back John Pugh squeezed his way through and won the race over the try line. Osian Parry Jones then converted.

Another break, eight minutes later saw outside half Mathew Parry similarly beat a number of defenders and was first over the line to score the second try. Winger Parry Jones again converted and, for the first time, the visitors were ahead 10-14.

The score was increased to 10-17 when Parry Jones was successful with a penalty attempt a few minutes later, but early in the last quarter, Llandudno, having regained their forward superiority and increased pressure found their way to the Pwllheli try line, and their prop Lewis Jones forced his way over. The conversion was missed but the score was now 15-17.

There was a lot of tension throughout the match, in particular in the last 10 minutes, and it was somewhat a surprise to see both penalty kickers missing attempts at goal. Llandudno could have won the game, but a penalty attempt in the last few seconds went wide and another, five minutes earlier bounced off the post.

It was an excellent win for Pwllheli, who have regained second position in the league, three points behind leaders Nant Conwy, who now have a game in hand.

In midweek, Pwllheli had also registered a 53-19 home win over Dolgellau.

Pwllheli Seconds meanwhile lost their match to second-placed Holyhead in Divion Three North, whilst Pwllheli Youths won their home match against Wrexham Youths 38-7 and earned a place in the semi finals of the Gogledd Cymru Youth Cup. They play Dolgellau on Saturday.