Fixture

Abergele 122 v Shotton Steel 5

Match report kindly written by Ian Harrison - Photo credit to Dave Jones, Many thanks.

It is ironic that the seeds of yesterday’s destruction of Shotton Steel were sown by Shotton themselves, when on a cold winter afternoon in Deeside way back in 2013 Abergele gave one of their worst ever displays and were duly thrashed by the Steelmen. The outcome of that heavy defeat, apart from Jimmy’s famous on-field rant at the players after the final whistle, were the major changes in players, coaching, coaches and attitude and, having come a full circle, resulted in Abergele’s record score against a weakened Shotton side.

Yes Shotton fielded a weakened side and were at one stage down to 12 men on the field. Yes Shotton hardly ever left their own half throughout the eighty minutes but you can only play what is in front of you and Abergele did that superbly. Every aspect of their play from scrummaging to their passing and running was of a high class and it was only the desire to score more tries that resulted in knock-ons that stopped Gele scoring even more points. The key question is “How did Shotton score 5 points?” Well even that came from an ambitious Gele pass that was intercepted on the halfway line and followed up by a Shotton player to make the score 108-5 in the seventieth minute.

The game was symmetrical in terms of scoring with 61 points from 9 tries and 8 conversions in each half with tries being scored at regular intervals to keep the crowd entertained on a cold afternoon. The first half tries, from Simon Hughes (2), Ben Jones (2). Chris Edwards (2) Ash Tilley, Gareth Beach and Rich Meddlicott, were well worked against a stubborn Shotton defence. The second half tries were different in nature. With Shotton clearly tiring and losing players, gaps were created in their defence and Gele’s backs ran through them almost at will, sometimes from big distances. 

One try that stood out was scored by full back Rich Meddlicott on fifty three minutes when he fielded a kick well into the Gele half and weaved his way through the Shotton line to score under the posts. Other second half tries came from Chris Edwards (3), Llion Mortimer (2), Owain Davies, Mike Bagnall and Gethin Jones right on the final whistle.

It would be easy to focus on the game statistics – Owain Davies 37 points, Chris Edwards 5 tries (man-of-the-match), 18 tries overall, Gele’s record score, highest score in North Wales this season – but Gele played 15 man rugby throughout the eighty minutes with the confidence gained from their defeat of Llangefni two weeks ago. Although the points were welcome and made a big difference at the top of Division Two North such a ‘perfect storm’ is unlikely to happen again this season and the hard work on the training ground has to continue if Gele are to improve their position in the top three. The next game is Newtown at home next Saturday and a win will set Gele up nicely for the International Break.

Although Chris Edwards was given the man-of-the-match accolade and, as Captain Joe Lavin said in his post-match speech, everyone who wore the green shirt played well and it was difficult to single anyone out.

Finally it is worth saying that the game was well-refereed and the Shotton players deserved their applause at the end for never giving up – we wish you well for the rest of the season.