Fixture

Trimsaran travelled the short distance to Furnace on Saturday. This was the first meeting between the 2 teams for a few years as Furnace were promoted along with Penygroes last season after finishing 2^nd in 3 West Central C last season.

The cherries won their first game last week against Bynea by 55-8 so were on a high coming into the game after also having a successful pre-season which seen them win all 3 of their games.

Trim also made a winning start to the season last week after a narrow victory over Cefneithin by 18-15.

Trimsaran were under no illusions how difficult this game would be and knew they would have to give 110% if they wanted to stop the cherries.

Trim kicked off and after a handling error Furnace had the early initiative with a scrum near halfway. Trim showed their intention from this scrum driving Furnace back 10-15 meters and getting awarded the early penalty. This was the start of a period of 20 minutes where Trim were pressuring the Furnace defence and in the home teams territory constantly. Furnace did show some strong defence and had secured a couple of turnover but it wasn’t long until Trim took a well-deserved lead after second row Emyr Evans crossed the whitewash to open the scoring after some good build up work by Trim.

Furnace ill-discipline allowed Trim to get the territory and within the next 10 minutes Trim had extended their lead to 11-0 after 2 penalties by fly half Corey Phillips. Furnace came into the game now after a loose return kick from the kick off and had a run of possession and territory, this allowed them to break down the wing and score their first try of the game in the corner against the run of play. The score was now 5-11 to the visitors with 10 minutes of the first half left.

Trim were back pressuring the home team deep in their 22 and set up a driving maul from a lineout but some good defence from Furnace turned the ball over and allowed them to clear their lines only for some more ill-discipline for being offside allowing Trim to again get territory and after a few good phases of play from the forwards the ball was passed out to winger Callum McCormack who touched down for his teams second try in the corner. The difficult conversion was nailed over by Corey Phillips and with only 5 minutes of the first half remaining the score was 5-18.

From the kick off Trim cleared their lines only to be told it was kicked out on the full so Furnace now had an ideal attacking lineout just before half time to hit back. The cherries were awarded a scrum 5 yards out after the ball became unplayable and had one more chance as the ref called last play to get some sort of points. Furnace tried to power their way through but Trim held them out before they spread the ball wide and were tackled into touch to bring the first half to an end. Trim were happy with the outcome at half time but knew Furnace would come back at them in the second half all guns blazing.

Furnace kicked off the second half and were the team to pressure first. They were awarded a penalty of their own which they kicked at goal to reduce the deficit after 5 minutes of the second half.

Trim pushed for another score to extend their league but a pass was intercepted by the Furnace hooker and he booted the ball back down deep into the Trim 22. A shove from the Cherries number 9 off the ball resulted in a yellow card for him as the ref had finally had enough of the penalties conceded after numerous warnings. This allowed Trim to clear their lines and retain possession from the lineout. The game started to turn a bit scrappy now with both teams failing to retain possession for enough phases to trouble the defensive lines. Furnace did have a break down the wing but the green and blacks defence was strong enough to keep them out only for Furnace to be awarded a penalty and a shot at goal which was unsuccessful. 5 minutes later it was Trim who were extending their lead thanks to a drop goal from hooker and captain Ryan Edwards to make the score 8-21 with 20 minutes left. Trim had a further chance through a penalty to take the game beyond the home team but the shot at goal was just missed. Furnace had more possession and territory in the final 10 minutes of the game but the green and blacks held firm in defence and managed to hold out everything the cherries threw at them. When the ref called last play of the game full back Dan Griffiths booted the ball off the field to secure an impressive win for Trimsaran and to make it 2 wins out of 2 to open the new league season. 

We take a break from league action this weekend as we welcome Amman United to Caeffair in the 1^st round of the Specsavers National Bowl.