Mold have been threatening to do it for a while and, watched by their home fans, duly delivered a performance to be proud of, running out 36-13 home winners over Llangefni.
This was a Celtic battle of wills, rugby played with robust spirit which had the teams surging end to end. Mold played courageous, running rugby for the most part and matched Llangefni in the attrition stakes, with smothering defence.
Cai Edwards’ well worked try in the third minute was an indication of what was to come.
Mold played with depth, hit passes hard and were prepared to be expansive, meaning the Llangefni defence was punished in the early stanzas.
The smarting visitors responded, first with a penalty then eventually dominating the final period of the first half in terms of territory and possession – but only managing to score a single deserved try to bring the score to only a 14-10 deficit at the break, after Aled Ellis had finished off an earlier powering run from Alex Green.
Based on previous weeks, a number of observers felt that the match would again be won at the breakdown but rather than losing out this time, Mold, who had tirelessly worked in training, soon found that both theirs and Llangefni’s respective cavalries largely cancelled each other out initially. As the game wore on, however, Mold took the initiative as they swarmed to retain possession.
The Llangefni territory advantage in long periods of the first half initially gave rise to a converted penalty early in the second but was soon diminished as Mold piled on the pressure, aided by a master class display of touchline kicking by captain Steve Quinton to punish Llangefni penalties.
From two of the resulting lineouts, Mold added to their positive score line from a brace of tries from old Stalwart Chris Lewis, returning to the Mold fold for his first outing of the season.
Going into the last quarter with a 28-13 cushion, Mold would have often stepped off the gas but the other replacement stalwarts Mike Roberts and Mark Evans steadied the ship and ensured the pressure was maintained, if not upped even further.
Mold further seized momentum with a penalty from Quniton, then the final sealing try of the match came from an opportune break away try from Richard Hopkins who had seized on a visitors’ spilled ball.
All in all, Mold’s victory at 38-13 was a well deserved one, but nothing can be taken away from the visitors who battled courageously to the end, looking dangerous as ever when they did counter attack.
Head Coach Les Byrne was buoyant after the win saying, “We put in a good performance, we did create opportunities, and we played enough of pressure rugby to beat a strong Llangefni side. All the signs have been there in the last few games that we would deliver and Mold were certainly up for it with a passion, and deliver it they did.
“It was a far from a perfect performance,” Byrne added, “particularly with handling errors creeping in when tiredness set in, but we held it together well in other quarters to renew our belief in ourselves and ability. It was a good result for the lads and one that we can all be proud of.”
Meanwhile, Pwllheli notched up their fourth win, crossing for 12 tries in a 76-11 home demolition of Llandudno.
The hosts’ back line were rampant throughout with speedster Robin Hughes Jones helping himself to five tries, full-back Owain Williams and wing Emyr Jones both bagging hat-tricks, with flanker Tom Parry also crossing. Nick Butterworth slotted six conversions, with Matt Duggan and Owain Williams getting one apiece.
Elsewhere, top of the table Caernarfon notched up their fifth victory, running out 22-16 winners at Bro Ffestiniog.
The other scheduled fixture between Bethesda and Ruthin was postponed, as Ruthin were unable to field a side.
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