SOUTH WALES SCORPIONS 68 OXFORD 14

By Ian Golden at Virginia Park – Saturday

 

A skilful South Wales Scorpions reserves side easily overcame a plucky Oxford reserves outfit, who themselves showed promise in the second half when they scored three tries on the bounce.

 

Scorpions took the lead in the fourth minute when after a good set of six, Ethan Coombes crashed over the line. Ben Jones converted.

 

Oxford looked to fight back and were close in the 14^th minute when Dan Jameson was held up over the line.

 

But as soon as Scorpions went back onto the attack, they got their second, Sion Jones forcing his way under the sticks and Ben Jones adding the extras to make it 12-0.

 

Some superb skill led to the Scorpions’ third try, again after clearing up an Oxford attack. Lewis Hughes picked up a chip and dummied a few Oxford players to twist his way to the line. Ben Jones missed the kick.

 

The fourth try came straight away. Dafydd Hellard had just come onto the pitch, and with his first touch, he sprinted through the centre, pushing players away and placed the ball under the black dot. Jones converted.

 

Four minutes later, Sion Jones picked up the ball from the scrum to run through for his second and Scorpions’ fifth. Ben Jones converted again.

 

And from kick-off, Ian Newbury marked his come-back from injury by scoring in the corner. Jones missed the kick.

 

The half-time score was 32-0 and it went up to 38 within two minutes of the second half as Hellard went in under the sticks for his second and Ben Jones converted.

 

Lewis Hughes caught a perfect chip to score Scorpions’ eighth try, Jones couldn’t convert.

 

Oxford finally got over the line in the 55^th minute as Luke MacMahon was rewarded for his team’s persistence.

 

And they followed that up with a second try just five minutes later when Nick Arnell stormed through and MacMahon converted to bring the score back to 42-10.

 

From kick-off, Tom Davies went through for Oxford’s third but Sion Jones completed his hat-trick moments later to address the balance and Ben Jones converted.

 

Sion went over for his fourth and Scorpions’ tenth with 10 minutes left on the clock and Rhys Gant converted.

 

Young Cobi Green, actually the co-founder of community club Rhondda Outlaws, ran in for Scorpions 11^th on 36 minutes with Lloyd Selby-Smith following him over. Both conversions were missed.

 

There was still time for Sion Jones to score his fifth of the afternoon which Ben Jones improved to make the final score 68-14 to the young promising lads from South Wales.

 

SCORPIONS

7. Rhys Gant
8. Ian Newbury
9. Lloyd Selby-Smith
10. Josh Stafford-Smith
11. Lewis Hughes
12. Shane Lee
13. Ben Jones
14. Jake Thomas
15. Jake McDonald
16. Ethan Coombes
17. Josh Williams
18. Matt Wilcox
19. Sion Jones

Subs:

16. Dafydd Hellard
17. Tom Ansen
18. Rhys Davies
19. Cobi Green
20. Macauley Harris
21. Liam Maule

 

TRIES     Ethan Coombes                (4)

Sion Jones           (16, 35, 66, 70, 80)

Lewis Hughes    (27, 48)

Dafydd Hellard  (31, 42)

Ian Newbury      (38)

Cobi Green         (76)

Lloyd Selby-Smith            (78)

GOALS  Ben Jones           (4, 16, 31, 35, 43, 67, 78, 80)

Rhys Gant           (71)

 

OXFORD

1 David Yates

2 James Royale

3 Nick Arnell

4 Rob Wilson

5 Errol Carter

6 Luke MacMahon

7 Ryan Lee

8 Simon Price

33 Dan Jamieson

10 Tom Davies

11 Luke Haslam

12 Owen Hunt

13 Santino Decarro

Subs:

14 Sam Earle

15 Brad Harewood

16 Jorge Caloro

17 Lee Crossley

 

TRIES     MacMahon (55), Arnold (59), Davies (63)

GOALS  MacMahon (60)

 

Referee: James Jones.

Half-time: 32-0

 

 

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