Wrexham 17 Abergele 24

Wrexham suffered a 17-24 home defeat at the hands of Abergele on the opening day of the new rugby season, but they impressed overall with a young untried team and will surely improve as their Division Two campaign progresses.

Abergele settled well at the beginning and opened the scoring in the 4th minute with an unconverted try in the left corner by lock Simon Hughes. Centre Gareth Evans was off target with a difficult conversion attempt but made up for this when he added the extra points to full-back Chris Marsh’s try just before the end of the first quarter.

Wrexham maintained a high tackling rate and dominated the set scrum but some of their tactics fell foul of the referee and they found it difficult to make progress. That all changed in the second quarter of the game when their young outside-half James Price and centre Scott Jones together with flanker Troy Roberts made breaks that started to put pressure on the visitors.

They spurned a number of penalty opportunities as they went in search of tries, but some woeful passes and wrong options left them without a point for all their efforts. Abergele were under the cosh but they still managed to increase their lead when Evans popped over a long-distance penalty in the 30th minute.

Wrexham turned round 0-15 down at half-time but soon started to dominate the game again. They eventually broke through the Abergele defence in the 60th minute when they moved the ball swiftly from left to right for wing Mark Gasson to touch down in the corner. Price converted from the touchline and Wrexham were back in business.

The visitors countered immediately with a penalty before they were fully stretched as Wrexham piled on replacements and opened out with some tremendous running by their backs. Wing Jack Ratcliffe was presented with two golden opportunities to score by his centres, but unfortunately the cover from Abergele arrived in the nick of time and nothing ensued.

Gasson kept plugging away on the right wing, however, and his persistence was rewarded in the 70th minute when he squeezed in at the corner for a fine try, Price’s conversion attempt hitting an upright. Just when Wrexham looked as though they might rescue the game, flanker Gareth Hughes was sent off for alleged improper use of the boot in a ruck and Evans gave Abergele a lifeline with his third penalty of the game.

In an exciting finale, Wrexham applied pressure once again and claimed their third try of the game when flanker Keir Harding powered over in the right corner. With only four points between the sides, Wrexham put in one final effort to produce a match winning try, but they were penalised for an offence near the halfway line and Evans put in a monster kick for Abergele to put the issue beyond doubt.