A weekend of rugby league match reports from Llanelli

SATURDAY

SOUTH WALES IRONMEN 28 GLOUCESTERSHIRE ALL GOLDS 20

By Ian Golden at Parc Stebonheath

South Wales Ironmen opened a memorable weekend at Stebonheath Park on Saturday, when they beat local rivals Gloucestershire All Golds for the first time in four years.

The Ironmen made the news last week when they moved from Merthyr Tydfil to Llanelli and then signed ten new players, many of them from West Wales Raiders. Four made their debut in this game – try scorers Shaun Tennant and Curtis Ford starting, with Archie Snook and Henry Davies on the bench.

Davies arrived from Cheltenham Phoenix,and the fact he played against his local side that hadn’t picked him up, would have made victory sweeter.

All Golds’ new signing from the Ironmen, Ross Price, started on the bench. He was one of six former South Wales players in their side.

Kade Breen, playing his best game since joining the club, was close to giving the Ironmen an eighth minute lead but was stopped centimetres from the line in the final tackle of a well-worked set.

All Golds took the lead in the 13th minute when Brad Kislingbury crashed over in the corner. Courtney Davies’ kick hit the post.

Ironmen were soon level. A slick passing move led to debutant Ford diving well to score in the corner. Ben Jones’ conversion attempt swept wide.

Then they quickly took the lead after Andy Gay’s tricky high bomb was fluffed by Phil Cowburn. Ironmen’s Welsh international, one of three on each side, reaped the reward from the resulting set by twisting under the sticks after Archie Snook was close. Jones converted.

All Golds got an unconverted try back through Welsh international Steve Parry to make it 10-8 at half-time, and it looked like that a vital opportunity was lost for Ironmen to make it 12-8 when Jones sent a penalty kick wide. But from the restart, Morgan Evans fooled the All Golds defence to dive over for Ironmen’s third try. Jones’ goal extended their lead to eight points.

Breen went from villain to hero in under a minute, dropping the ball near to the try-line when he had the chance to increase Ironmen’s lead, before forcing Parry to do the same at the other end of the pitch.

Desperate to get a try back, the All Golds kept pressing and were rewarded with a Cowburn try under the sticks that Ben Stead converted.

Stead was deputising for Courtney Davies who had left the field with a broken wrist. It is hoped he will be fit again before the World Cup.

His fellow Wales international Lewis Reece, the All Golds’ man of the match, made an outstanding break and laid off well to Chris Worrall, but Gay was back to defend and forced the Gloucester forward into touch.

But from their next attack, Cowburn fed Joe McLean who scored in the corner. Stead converting well to give them a 20-16 lead.

They weren’t leading for long. Jones, another man who played his best game for the club so far, dived over from dummy half to level things before converting himself, then another debutant, Shaun Tennant picked up a chip kick and extended the lead to 26-20. Jones made his best kick of the day to extended the lead to eight points with five minutes to go and seal the win.

SOUTH WALES IRONMEN

27  Jack Uren
23  Samuel Hodge
28  Morgan Jefferies
17  Shaun Tennant
5  Curtis Ford
6  Andrew Gay
22  Ben Jones
18  Morgan Evans
9  Connor Farrer
13  Barrie Phillips
24  Connor Parker
2  Craig Lewis
10  Kade Breen

Subs:
3  Dafydd Phillips
29  Aaron Lewis
15  Archie Snook
26  Henry Davies

Tries: Ford (17), Gay (20), Evans (47), Jones (70), Tennant (75)

Goals: Jones 4/6

GLOUCESTERSHIRE ALL GOLDS
  1  Phil Cowburn
  2  Mobolaji Agoro
  3  Lewis Reece
  4  Bradley Kislingbury
  5  Errol Carter
  6  Courtney Davies
  7  Ben Stead
  8  Harrison Elliott
  9  Steven Parry
10  James Walter
11  Chris Worrall
12  Joseph McClean
13  William Brickhill

Subs:
14  Ross Price
15  Malikhi Lloyd-Jones
16  Richard Jones
17  Harry Kidd

Tries: Kislingbury (13), Parry (28), Cowburn (58), McLean (65)
Goals: Davies 0/2, Stead 2/2

SUNDAY

SOUTH WALES DRAGONHEARTS PROBABLES 34 BRITISH ARMY 26

By Ian Golden at Parc Stebonheath

A South Wales select, primarily made up of Valley Cougars players, overcame a second half comeback from the British Army side to win 34-26 in day two of a big weekend of Rugby League in Llanelli.

For the second day in a row, the home side sealed an eight-point win after scoring the final try of the game with five minutes to go.

The match was the first of two friendly games for Wales’ community players, out of which the 2017 Wales Dragonhearts squad will be selected.

A different set of South Wales players will travel to Deeside to take on the North Wales Origin side on the weekend of September 2nd/3rd.

Wales Dragonhearts will take on the full Germany side on October 14th  and another nation to be confirmed.

The Welsh took a second minute lead when Dean Higgs dived over from dummy half and Mike Hurley converted.

Yousif Sulliman extended their lead running over from the wing, with Hurley again adding the extras.

The Army hit back on 12 minutes when Dan Pickles went over just right of the sticks but Kieran Roach sliced the conversion wide.

As soon as South Wales regained the ball, they got a third try – Higgs with his second and Hurley converting again.

The fourth came when Shane Lee intercepted and ran half the length of the field to score. Hurley kept up his 100% kicking record.

Just before half-time, the Army got the second try that they’d been pushing for when Roach went in under the sticks and converting himself.

24-10 down at the break, Roach pulled another try back for the Army when he broke 50 metres and converted.

A Mikey Harrison try in the corner brought the score back to 24-20 before a Connor Holmes try levelled it, Roach giving them the lead for the first time in the game.

After 52 minutes without a try, South Wales regained the lead through a Jarad Hinnem try in the corner. Despite the strong wind, Hurley kicked well to make the score 30-26 before Higgs completed his hat-trick to seal the win.

SOUTH WALES

1 Matt Davies (Torfaen Tigers)
17 Yousif Sulliman (Valley Cougars)
3 Liam Watton (Valley Cougars)
4 Mike Hurley (Valley Cougars)
5 Sam Baker (Torfaen Tigers)
6 Lee Goddard (Valley Cougars)
14 Shane Lee (Valley Cougars)
19 Louis Pengelly (Torfaen Tigers)
9 Dean Higgs (Valley Cougars)
10 Ethan Coombes (Valley Cougars)
11 Jarad Hinnem (Torfaen Tigers)
12 Ben Swift (West Wales Raiders)
13 Scott Britton (Valley Cougars)

Subs:
7 Adam Watton (Valley Cougars)
15 Corey Phillips (Rhondda Outlaws)
16 Dan Maiden (West Wales Raiders)
2 Scott Giles (Valley Cougars)
18 Dafydd Hellard (Valley Cougars)
8 Mark Jones (Rhondda Outlaws)
20 Rhys Davies (Valley Cougars)

Tries: Higgs (2, 14), Sulliman (7), Lee (18), Hinem (70), Higgs (75)
Goals: Hurley 5/6

BRITISH ARMY

1 Chris Lopez
2 James Bouce
3 Pete Holmes
4 Mikey Harrison
5 Ross Geurng
6 Kieran Roach
7 Tom Blythe
8 Dan Pickles
9 Matty Scott
10 Dylan McLachlan
11 Dan Turner
12 Sam Beenor
13 James Lang

Subs:
14 Scott Westwood
15 Rob Bonehill
16 Chris King
17 Andrew McMenemy
18 Meli Waitaqa
19 Eriqui Builsui
20 Scott Gibbs
21 Conor Holmes
22 Marcus Mercer
23 Scott Watkins

Tries: Pickles (11), Roach (40, 46), Harrison (56), Holmes (65)
Goals: Roach 3/5

 
SOUTH WALES UNDER 15 ORIGIN – WEST WALES 42 EAST WALES 22

West Wales comfortably won the 2017 Origin Series after beat East Wales 42-22 at Stebonheath on Sunday.

It gave them a 76-26 aggregate win following their 34-4 victory in Cardiff back in May.

West took the lead on three minutes through Ciaran Comeford converted by Joe Hawkins but East soon levelled through Kyle Huish converted by Cameron Samuel.

The home side soon regained the lead when Jordan Evans ran in under the sticks and Hawkins goaled before an unconverted Tom Griffiths try in the corner extended their lead.

Shaun Webber got a try back for East, improved by Samuel to bring the score back to 16-12 but a Iestyn Hopkins try under the black dot converted by Hawkins extended West’s lead to 10 points.

Comeford’s second and West’s fifth of the half was converted well by Hawkins and brought the half-time score up to 28-12.

West were first over after the break as an unconverted Aled Griffiths try extended their lead. Ben Snaddon ran over for the next , improved by Hawkins before East hit back through Huish’s second of the day.

Tristan Rawlings got another for West to extend their lead to 42-16 but East didn’t give up, Huish claiming his hat-trick try with two minutes to go and Samuel converting.