CONFERENCE LEAGUE SOUTH : WEST WALES RAIDERS 34 VALLEY COUGARS 42

By Peter Tiffin at Parc Stebonheath

Valley Cougars went back into second place in Conference League South on Saturday after a hard fought 42-34 win over West Wales Raiders.

Cougars are now guaranteed a semi-final place along with Nottingham Outlaws and London Chargers, with Raiders, Torfaen Tigers and the second strings from All Golds and Coventry battling it out for the last available spot with still a month to go in the regular season.

Raiders were given a set-back before the game when playmaker and pivot Luke Williams was injured late in the warm up and had to pull out of the game, and with captain Nath Beck, wingers Curtis Ford, Math Davies and Lee Evans also getting injured during the week, it left the back line very light.

However it was Raiders who scored first on the four minute mark with Morgan Jefferies going in under the posts, Daf Daniels converted.

Cougars then regrouped and assaulted the Raiders line and with referee’s decisions and their own silly mistakes going against them, the Cougars managed to get over the line after completing six sets of six in defence, second rower Ethan Coombes went over for the first and Mike Hurley added the two.

Minutes later, a knock on deep in Raiders’ own half allowed Adam Morgan to go over very near to the sticks. Hurley added again before a penalty infringement at the ruck saw Ross Price score under the posts, again Hurley converted.

As the Cougars gained both more confidence, and the rub of the decisions, Rhys Davies managed to break through some poor defence, scoring Cougars’ fourth converted try of the half.

With the scores at 24-6 the game looked to be sliding away from the Raiders, however power house captain Alan Pope smashed over for a try converted by Daniels and the half finished with a kick to the corner from Daniels stolen in mid-flight by winger Ben Rees to score in the corner. Daniels slotted over a superb touch line conversion leaving the half time score West Wales Raiders 18 Valley Cougars 24.

With a very tight first ten minutes between both, it was the Cougars who managed to break the deadlock with centre Liam Watton going in under the posts, conversion added again.

A mistake from the kick gave the Cougars head and field at the scrum in a deep position allowing Ethan Coombes to end a good set, sending himself through to dive over and add a further six points.

The Raiders then fought back with hooker Daf Phillips scoring under the posts only for the referee to have judged it a knock on. Even though this was disheartening the Raiders continued to apply the pressure and send winger Andrew Rees-Spowart in at the corner.

The conversion was missed this time, but again the Raiders applied the correct pressure, took their time and sent debutant prop Steff Jones over for his first try. Daniels added the two points.

With the clock ticking down and time against them stalwart captain Alan Pope smashed through the Cougars defence to score his second try, Shane Edwards converted.

As the Raiders found themselves back in a very strong position over eagerness from some passing saw an interception from Mike Connor who ran 60 metres down the field to secure the win.