Fixture

The first of Bridge's two pre-season matches was played on a sun drenched evening at Llyn Y Felin on Thursday 17/8/17 with Porthmadog the visitors.

It was the visitors that began the game the brightest, as they opened the scoring after regaining the ball from the first maul. From the numerous phases that the Porth pack carried the ball on the fringes, they made 30 metres and resulted with a forward barging over the Bridge whitewash. The try went unconverted.

Bridge quickly regained their composure and the home pack were to score a carbon copy of Porth's opening try. This saw veteran second row Rhys Thomas crashing over the line for his first try of the season with Dion McGrath converting.

Fly Half Dion McGrath was heavily involved in the play during the first quarter and it was his beautifully weighted cross field kick that led to Bridge's next try. The kick saw former Bridge winger Osian Williams panic under the high ball two metres from his line and his decision to slap the ball into touch, under extreme pressure from the well-judged kick chase from the home side, resulted in the referee rightly awarding a penalty try to Bridge. McGrath added the extras. The first period of play (20 minutes) ended with Bridge leading 14 – 5.

The second quarter saw Bridge have the territorial advantage, but were to rue a number of missed chances as Williams, the Porth villian in the first quarter, become their hero in the second as he powered over his opposite number to score in the corner. Again the try went unconverted and Bridge went into the half-time break 14 - 10 up.

Bridge had the better of the third quarter and scored the only try in that period. Captain Ollie O'Brien worked tirelessly to chase another well-judged kick that the Porth full back misjudged and O'Brien was on hand to collect the ball and canter in under the posts from 20 metres. McGrath converted to give Bridge a 21 - 10 lead they wouldn't relinquish.

The final quarter was even between the two sides, but despite having chances neither side would trouble the scoreboard. Final score Menai Bridge 21 - 10 Porthmadog.

This was a much needed physical run out for Bridge and provided the new coaching team with an excellent opportunity to assess the team's new patterns of play and set moves. It was also really encouraging to see 26 players having a run out, a number making their Bridge debuts.