Report taken from Wrexham Rugby Club's website.

A combination of Wrexham’s inability to convert pressure into points and Pwllheli’s superior pace behind the scrum led to Wrexham’s first league defeat of the season and knocked them off the top perch in Division Five North.

Pwllheli now lead the Championship by a point from Wrexham but they have a game in hand and look set to cruise through this season’s campaign, while Wrexham will have to fight it out with Bethesda and Bro Ffestiniog for the second promotion spot on offer to Division Four North.

The home side possessed the stronger of the two packs and, with lock Mike Jones making an impressive return from long term injury, had a chance to take the lead in the 11^th minute when they earned a penalty for an offside offence. Unfortunately outside-half Richard Lloyd missed the target with a fairly straightforward attempt and Wrexham were then forced to defend.

Ten minutes later, a surge by the visiting pack in the Wrexham 22 drew in too many home defenders and the ball was quickly transferred to full-back David-Lloyd Williams who dummied his way under the posts. Fly-half Elgan Rowlands missed the simple conversion.

Wrexham came back strongly with hooker John Gill and flanker Kerry Powell playing with bags of passion as their pack camped in the Pwllheli 22. They should have come away with at least a try after creating two pushover moves against a weaker scrum, but somehow they managed to over complicate their efforts and the visiting defence was able to hold on.

Pwllheli came back with some outstanding running from their talented backs, but committed tackling by the home defenders denied them a further score. In the last minute of the half Wrexham had a good chance to reduce the deficit with a penalty for another offside offence, but Lloyd’s kick was completely miss-cued and the half-time score remained at 5-0 to Pwllheli.

Almost immediately after the restart, the visitors stretched their lead when Elgan Rowlands slotted a 30 metre penalty. They increased their tempo with a series of concerted attacks in the home 22 and scored a crucial try when flanker Meilir Hughes broke off the back of a maul and ran through unopposed to touch down under the posts. Rowlands added the extra points.

To their credit, Wrexham managed to stifle Pwllheli’s fast running threequarters and should have scored in the 65^th minute when they constructed another pushover move. Number eight Keir Harding couldn’t ground the ball, however, and then a good move by Wrexham backs Simon Williams and Dan Cheesbrough was halted by determined defensive work by the visitors. 

In the closing minutes Pwllheli sensed that Wrexham were tiring and that they were still two tries short of gaining a bonus point. They raised their game again and achieved their goal with two touchdowns in the final 3 minutes, hooker Dafydd Myrdin dashing over from a line-out, David-Lloyd Williams running 80 metres to score under the posts and Elgan Rowlands adding two conversions.

Wrexham coach Russell Penrhyn Jones was obviously disappointed with the result and said afterwards, “They are just a better side than us, they are much more clinical and they have more options than us.” He must, however have been pleased with the way that his players contested the game for so long even though they didn’t get the scores that their performance deserved.      

Cynlluniwyd gan: Keith Parry Hawlfraint 2006