There were comfortable wins for three of the teams in Saturday’s WELSH PREMIER LEAGUE.
Ian Golden reports…
RHONDDA OUTLAWS 50 CARDIFF BLUE DRAGONS 16
Rhondda Outlaws gained their first win of the season at Sardis Road with a fantastic second half performance against Cardiff Blue Dragons to win 50-16.
It was a close first 40 minutes that saw the home side go in 18-12 up, but after the break the Outlaws, who shrugged off their opening day loss to Valley Cougars, let rip.
Daff Smith, Neil Sloane and Mark Jones scored first half tries with Chris Harris converting all three.
Morgan Rowlands and Jacob Brennan answered for Cardiff with Daf Green converting both.
Smith scored a couple more after the break to complete his hat-trick, with Morgan Cross, Rhod Garland, Lee Griffiths and John Sanigar all crossing for one try each.
Max Hendy kicked three goals with Sanigar converting his own try near to the end, that after Dom King had scored an unconverted consolation try for Cardiff.
TORFAEN TIGERS 62 CARDIFF ATHLETIC 14
Early in the game it looked like these two sides would be evenly matched as they swapped early tries, but in the end, Torfaen Tigers’ experience saw them cruise to victory over Cardiff Athletic.
Torfaen took an early lead after Morgan Knight forced his way over and Dai Thomas converted.
Straight away Cardiff levelled. Liam Carey went over from dummy half and James Wickham converted.
An Eauan Morris try gave Torfaen the lead back before Jarred Hinnem increased it further with a try under the sticks that Thomas converted.
Jack Watkins added two more Torfaen tries with Sam Taylor scoring another on half-time. Thomas converted all three giving them a healthy 34-6 interval lead.
Hinnem scored the first of the second half, quickly followed by Watkins’ hat-trick try, both of which improved by Thomas.
Hinnem ran over for his third, quickly followed by two from Mike Edwards and Thomas adding two more goals. Cardiff hit back with unconverted tries from Jamal Abdilahi and Steve Ashford but they were mere consolation.
LLANELLI KNIGHTS 10 VALLEY COUGARS 80
Valley Cougars remain top of the Welsh Premier League on points difference from Torfaen Tigers after an 80-10 win at Llanelli Knights.
The game was played at Trimsaran RFC, the original club of former dual code international Jonathan Davies, and he would have been impressed with the Cougars’ dominant performance, the Knights being completely blown away by the reigning Welsh champions who ran in 14 tries.
Craig Lewis led the way for the Cougars with a hat-trick of tries, Mike Hurley and Shane Lee each scored two, with Scott Britton, Jamie Marsh, Ben Jones, David Smith, Adam Watton, Liam Watton and Anthony Noonan all going over for one. Mike Hurley did well with the boot, converted 12 out of 14.
However despite conceding 80 points, the Knights didn’t ever give up and scored two tries of their own. Emyr Williams and George Freeman crossed for their scores, the second converted by Taylor Phillips.
Saturday 2 June 2018
WALES
PREMIER DIVISION: Valley Cougars 82 Bridgend Blue Bulls 0; Torfaen Tigers 62 Cardiff Athletic 14; Rhondda Outlaws 50 Cardiff Blue Dragons 16; Llanelli Knights 10 Valley Cougars 80.
