By Ian Golden,
Both Valley Cougars and Torfaen Tigers warmed up for their Big Welsh Derby game at BT Sport Cardiff Arms Park on Saturday 4th June with important wins on Saturday.
The two sides meet in the capital in a fortnight in their next Conference League South match, the opening game in a big triple header with also sees South Wales Scorpions meeting North Wales Crusaders as well as a reserve game between the Scorpions and Super League side Salford Red Devils.
But in this Saturday’s games, the Welsh rivals both overturned strong English sides.
Torfaen Tigers pulled off a shock victory at home to beat last year’s champions Nottingham Outlaws 50-44, with Danyl Davies leading the way with five tries in a see-saw game.
A try from Adam Cunliffe converted by Luca Costante gave Nottingham a fifth minute lead but Tigers hit back three minutes later as Chris Wannell put Matthew Cummins in. The conversion was missed so Torfaen trailed 6-4.
Nottingham struck back again as Nick Tasker went over near to the sticks with Costante converting but again the Tigers struck back as two unconverted tries put them level.
First, Dan Davies gathered a roadworks kick to score, before Cummins broke to feed Davies for his second.
The champions then started to turn on the pace. Tries from George Strachan and Cunliffe, again both converted by Costante gave them a two try cushion.
But Torfaen soon pegged that back. Cummins crossed again and converted for the first time before Jared Hinnem picked up a drop bomb to go in under the sticks. Cummins’ second goal made the score 24-all.
Torfaen led for the first time early in the second half when Cummins ran over for his hat-trick and converted himself. However two tries more tries from Cunliffe, the first converted by Costante made it 34-30 to the visitors.
Three further tries from Davies made it five for him on the day, the third being an 80-metre sprint. Cummins converted the first, and suddenly the tide had turned again as Torfaen led 44-34.
Nottingham’s Oliver Dale got a try back for his team with a conversion from Costante to close the gap to 44-40 before Cummins with an audacious flick pass put Chris Wannell over in the corner to make it 48-40.
A Joe Barton try brought it back to 48-44 in the dying minutes but they conceded a penalty from kick-off that Cummins converted to completed proceedings.
Tickets for the Big Welsh Derby day on Saturday 4th June can be bought by going to http://www.scorpionsrl.com/Page/Content/2831.
COVENTRY BEARS RESERVES 10 VALLEY COUGARS 56
Valley Cougars dominated proceedings at Coventry Bears Reserves with a handsome 56-10 win.
A fourth minute try Gethin King started things off with John Saniger going over for a brace before the 25th minute. Lee Goddard converted all for an 18-0 lead.
A lone Roddy Jones try for the Bears completed the scoring before the break and the Cougars let rip when the teams returned to the field.
Gethin King scored two to complete his hat-trick while Jamie Marsh, Scott Britton, Ethan Coombes, Lee Goddard and Liam Price also went over for tries in the final 40 minutes with Goddard converting five times.
Interestingly, the penultimate try of the game was scored by Coventry Bears’ first team coach Tom Tsang, playing for his reserves! Tawanda Chipadza converted.
Tickets for the Big Welsh Derby day on Saturday 4th June can be bought by going to http://www.scorpionsrl.com/Page/Content/2831.
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