Wales – Commonwealth Championships Day 1 reports

Wales will take on England tomorrow (Saturday) in the second of the fifth v eighth semi-finals after losing all three group games on Friday.

England managed one win, beating Papua New Guinea in their final group game to finish third in their group.

AUSTRALIA 30 WALES 0

Australia, with all bar three of their players in NRL squads, showed their class by beating Wales 30-0 in the opening match.

From Wales’ first attack, Blake Turner was pushed into touch. Australia made them pay and scored the opener when Townsville Blackhawks’ Michael Caroll slid over in the corner.

Wales pushed for an equaliser but a dropped ball near to the Australia line, gave the Kangaroos the ball back and again, from a length of the field set, Brisbane Broncos’ Katoni Staggs scored in the same place.

There was nearly a third try but Harry Grant grounded just short of the line on the final tackle of a set.

But just before the break, Broncos’ Corey Allan raced away for their third, converting himself to give Australia a 14-0 lead.

The Kangaroos were in again straight after the break through Sydney Roosters’ Paul Momirovski, Burleigh Bears’ Hayden Schwass before Melbourne Storm’s Harry Grant try brought it up to 26-0.

Wales couldn’t get past the tough Australian defence. Stefan Collins gave it a go but he too was bundled into touch whilst Paul Edwards made a cheeky grubber but that was collected by Caroll.

Schwass’ second a minute before the end made the final score 30-0.

 

FIJI 12 WALES 4

 Wales regained some pride following the World Cup meeting between the two countries and the 12-4 win for Fiji wasn’t a fair reflection of how close the game was.

 This result means both Wales and Scotland miss out on the medal games on Saturday but go into the consolation tournament.

 A great bit of skill from Liam Silver gave Wales the lead, he controlled the conditions and dribbled the ball soccer style before leaping onto it, however Fiji levelled from kick-off through a Netani Narisia try.

Karlin Claridge believed he had Wales’ second try but it was chalked off for a forward pass and the score remained at 4-4 at the break.

Wales had a very good set of six just after the interval and were so close to scoring on a few occasions, only tough Fijian tackling and too long a kick on the final play, preventing a second Welsh score.

Some good play in the Fijian backline prevented Morgan Jefferies picking up the ball with the try-line at his mercy.

Straight from that let-off, Fiji’s Sam Kurukitoga scored a long-range try to go 8-4 up and they sealed the game after RT Timoli scored in the corner with two minutes to go.

There was nearly a try back for Paul Edwards but a tough tackle forced him to mishandle near the try-line.

 

SCOTLAND 20 WALES 0

By the time it came to the Battle of the Celts, much of the field, especially the sidelines, had turned into a quagmire due to the persisting rain, making skillful rugby very difficult.

 Scotland took an early lead after Niall Sydney scored in the corner following a well-worked set of six and they built the lead to 10-0 after a Matt Hogg try under the sticks which he converted.

When Jake Thomas was sent off for his contribution to a fight, that was the match for Wales.

Sydney broke through for the third try just before half-time then Justin Faughlin and Luke Westman added further unconverted tries.

 

MEN’S TOURNAMENT – DAY ONE

10.15am – Tonga 22 Samoa 8

12.05pm – Fiji 14 Scotland 10

12.30pm – Australia 30 Wales 0

12.55pm – England 10 Samoa 28

1.45pm – Papua New Guinea 12 Tonga 20

3.10pm – Australia 36 Scotland 0

3.35pm – Fiji 12 Wales 4

4.50pm – Samoa 16 Papua New Guinea 14

5.15pm – England 6 Tonga 12

6.05pm – Scotland 24 Wales 0

7.30pm – Australia 24 Fiji 4

7.55pm – England 12 Papua New Guinea 4

 WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT – DAY ONE

11.05am – Fiji 6 Samoa 24

11.30am – Canada 4 Tonga 8

2.10pm – Australia 26 Samoa 4

2.45pm – Cook Islands 4 Tonga 12

5.40pm – Canada 12 Cook Islands 20

7.05pm – Australia 20 Fiji 0

 PHYSICAL DISABILITY TOURNAMENT – DAY ONE

10.40am – New Zealand 4 Commonwealth All Stars 0

1.20pm – Australia 8 Commonwealth All Stars 0

3.10pm – Australia 4 Commonwealth All Stars 0

6.40pm – Australia 6 New Zealand 0

 

MEN’S TOURNAMENT – DAY TWO (all timings are Queensland time so please deduct 10 hours for UK time)

10.45am – Ranking semi-final – Scotland v Papua New Guinea

11.10am – Ranking semi-final – England v Wales

1pm – Major semi-final – Australia v Samoa

1.25pm – Major semi-final – Tonga v Fiji

2.15pm – Seventh / Eighth Place “Bowl” play-off

2.40pm – Fifth / Sixth Place “Shield” play-off

5.25pm – Bronze medal match

5.50pm – Gold medal match

WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT – DAY TWO

11.35am – Semi-Final – Australia v Cook Islands

12pm – Semi-Final – Tonga v Samoa

1.50pm – Fifth / Sixth Place “Shield” play-off – Canada v Fiji

4pm – Bronze medal match

4.25pm – Gold medal match

 PHYSICAL DISABILITY TOURNAMENT – DAY TWO

10.20am – Australia v New Zealand

12.35pm – New Zealand v Commonwealth All Stars

3.05pm – Gold medal match (First v Second ranked sides)