Wrexham won a tough encounter away at Menai Bridge

Menai Bridge 3 Wrexham 26
Wrexham won a tough encounter away at Menai Bridge with Jack Ratcliff scoring 3 tries and James Jess scoring 1 and newcomer Gavin Jones kicking 3 conversions.

Wrexham started brightly considering they were the traveling team no doubt the excellent warm up and team talk be Ian Sanger had its part to play. The first half was well contested by both teams with Wrexham looking to have a slight edge both sets of forwards were running hard lines and Wrexham’s backs attacking and defending well. As Wrexham edged towards to Menai’s try line Menai conceded a penalty unfortunately Wrexham missed the deadlock continued. Finally Wrexham edged in front after their backs went wide for Jack Ratcliff to latch on to the ball round his opposite number an score in the corner this allowed newcomer Gavin Jones to kick his first points for Wrexham 1st team Wrexham 7 points up. Menai applied pressure on Wrexham after the restart and gained a penalty just outside Wrexham’s 22 which they converted 7 – 3 to Wrexham. In the last 10 minutes Menai pressurised the Wrexham line again, running some hard lines as Wrexham defended their try line, they never allowed the Menai forwards to cross the line this was the turning point of the game, as it galvanised the team Wrexham finally cleared their lines half time unfortunately Rhys jones had received a yellow card after coming in from the side at a ruck.

At half time Wrexham had to make a change due to an injury to Jamie Morris who was replaced by Pete Doogan in the centre. 14 man Wrexham started brightly having weathered the storm of the Menai pack in the first half. Wrexham pressurising at every opportunity resulting in one of menai’s players receiving a yellow card both sides equal numbers. Menai looked to run the ball but a well-read interception by Jack Ratcliff saw him score under the posts for Gavin Jones to kick the conversion. Wrexham now back up to full strength kept on pressurising Menai’s players into mistakes and when they looked to go wide again, who was there Jack Ratcliff with another interception and another score under the posts for Gavin Jones to kick. Wrexham had brought on hard hitting James Bellis into the second row who’s runs forced Menai to mark him with a number of players and as the game went on and Wrexham introduced fresh legs in the form of Richard Platt the Menai players tired this resulted in them receiving another yellow card, towards the end of the game the final score of the game came from a scrum where a well worked play saw James Jess cross in the corner the bonus point try. It would be hard to pick a man of the match from this game as every player played for each other it was one of the best team efforts we have seen as coaches and a big thank you to the subs that came with us.