WEST WALES RAIDERS 52 TORFAEN TIGERS 36

By Peter Tiffin at Parc Stebonheath

West Wales Raiders won the battle of West v East in another feisty encounter at Parc Stebonheath in Llanelli on Saturday, beating Torfaen Tigers 52-36.

Raiders scored first to dampen the early fire with an Andrew Spowart try in the right hand corner on the fifth minute mark with Luke Williams converting.

Torfaen responded quickly with Liam Silver going in on the Raiders flank before Rhys Hendley went in under the sticks with a well worked try under the posts. Matt Cummins converted both.

Torfaen continued to take control of the first 20 minutes thwarting any Raiders attack and causing the home side lots of problems with their aggressive attacking style. Raiders managed to break through with Mathew Davies scoring a fantastic try in the corner, Luke Williams converting from wide out.

The next try came from a break on the right hand side which saw young pivot Shane Edwards wrong foot the defenders and going through a superb try in the opposite corner with Williams again converting out wide.

The Tigers again caught back and scored again with Kurtis Hall scoring an unconverted try, but a mistake from kick off gave the Raiders in to a scrum from a knock on with Dale Tucker scoring a well taken try in the corner.

From the kick off Torfaen spilled the ball allowing Andrew Spowart to run in to score under the posts, Luke Williams adding the two points leaving the half time score West Wales Raiders 24 Torfaen Tigers 18.

The second half started as the first with the Raiders on the scoreboard first with debutant winger Lee Evans scoring a 40 metre solo try, conversion was missed.

Raiders quickly scored two more tries, looking like they’d put the game out of reach. A scrum in the Raiders own half saw them break away and speedster Curtis Ford scored a try nearly the length of the pitch with Williams converting.

Within minutes a drop ball saw the Raiders pounce and quickly ship the ball to their edge where Dan Fox offloaded to send Curtis Ford in under the posts again, Williams converting.

The game looked sown up for the Raiders but Torfaen had different ideas firstly Jarred Hinney scored a try with Cummins converting, and with renewed confidence, Torfaen sent in pivot Dale Tucker for a fantastic individual try, again converted by Matt Cummins.

With 10 minutes remaining the Tigers scored again through Tom Mathews, again converted by Cummins, leaving the score 40-36 in favour of the Raiders.

But Raiders finished on a high with two further scores. First captain Nathan Beck wrong footed the Torfaen defence leaving a gap wide open for him to run in from 30 metres to score under the posts. Williams converted.

And with minutes remaining, the try of the game came through Raiders launching an attack from their own 20 metre line, going through several pairs of hands and with the try under the posts superbly supported by winger Lee Evans. Williams finished the game with a final conversion.

LONDON CHARGERS 18 VALLEY COUGARS 10

Valley Cougars went away from London Chargers with a disappointing 18-10 defeat.

It was an even first half with the sides only separated by a missed conversion. Brady Stewart’s try converted by Phil Lyon gave London the lead before Liam Watton hit back with a try that Mike Hurley couldn’t convert. 6-4 at the break.

Chargers scored first in the second half with a try from Timmy Duddley that Lyon improved before Cougars hit back on the hour with a Jack Watkins try that Hurley converted.

The Cougars had what they thought was a legitimate Lee Goddard try that would have given them the lead and Chargers capitalised, sealing the game on 74 minutes with a Johnny Rowe that Lyon converted.

“We felt we were denied a win but that’s not the full story,” said coach Dafydd Hellard. “We didn’t turn up and we were beaten by a London side who wanted it more. It was a good contest and I’m sure we’ll meet again later in the season.”