PENYGROES 21 pts.

PEMBROKE DOCK QUINS 7

The Quins once again stumbled to defeat, this time at the Welfare Ground, Penygroes, despite putting up a much better display than in the previous two games.

The home side went straight on the offensive, but the Quins' defence held firm, and unlike the previous two matches, did not concede any early points, although the hosts' outside-half Chris Powell, with the wind behind him, kept pinning the Quins back in their own half with some fine tactical kicking.

The Quins, however, were doing exceptionally well in the linesout, with Mark Van Rhyn and Barry Parsons stealing important ball from under the noses of their counterparts.

With the wind against them, the Quins were finding it hard to break out, and on 15 minutes Powell pushed a penalty wide of the uprights which let the Quins off the hook, but in the 20th minute the Quins cracked when number eight Gareth Davies forced his way over near the uprights, leaving Powell a simple conversion to put Penygroes into a seven-point lead.

Pembroke Dock hit back with a fine threequarter move when Lewis Davies engineered a gap for right wing Sam Richards to race through.

The Quins were only one pass away from getting on the scoreboard, but the move petered out.

Turning round only seven points adrift and with the wind behind them in the second half, the Quins seemed pretty confident of turning the match around.

They could not have got off to a worse start, though, when they conceded a try after just five minutes when scrum-half Carwyn Davies sneaked over close to the posts after the Quins were put under pressure after conceding a penalty.

Powell popped over the conversion to push the home side's lead out to 14 points, and then it was the Quins' turn to put the pressure on when, after declining two kickable penalties, they tried to force their way over the line, but it all came to nothing.

The Quins at this stage were well on top, but could not force a score and when Gareth Davies made an enormous amount of ground out of defence on 65 minutes to set up a second try for Davies, which was converted once again by Powell, the game looked up for the Quins.

The visitors had dominated the second half, but did not take their chances despite some resolute defence by their hosts.

They did, however, have the last say when second row Mark Van Rhyn, who had a fine game, scored his third try of the season near the corner flag.

The ball was then thrown to Davies who without a second thought drop-goaled the conversion with a magnificent kick from the touchline.

Tomorrow (Saturday), the Quins are at promotion hopefuls Swansea Uplands, before concluding the season with the home visits of Penygroes and New Dock Stars.