Wales – Commonwealth Championships Day 2 reports

Wales finished sixth out of eighth in the Rugby League Commonwealth Championships in Brisbane, Australia – a Nine a side under 23 tournament – following a 10-8 win over England and a loss to Scotland today.

 

For the record, both the Women’s and Physical Disability tournaments were open age. Australia won Gold in all three categories.

 

The reports are below and further down the thread are those from day one, yesterday.

Enclosed are a couple of screengrab photos from the England game which you can use if you see fit plus a squad photo.

RADIO – free to use interview with Wales coach Shane Eccles, recording after the England game – https://we.tl/Fl0qzG3dAw

Other media outlets, feel free to take quotes from this audio link.

WALES SIDE

1 Cobi Green (Bradford Bulls)

2 Stefan Collins (Coleg Y Cymoedd)

4 Paul Edwards (Unattached)

5 Liam Rice-Wilson (Coventry Bears)

6 Zak Williams (Coventry Bears)

7 Rhys Gant (Valley Cougars)

8 Dan Crabtree (Ulverston ARLFC)

9 Connor Farrer (West Wales Raiders)

10 Jake Thomas (Torfaen Tigers)

11 Blake Turner (Rochdale Hornets)

12 Aneurin Walker (West Wales Raiders)

14 Macauley Harris (West Wales Raiders)

16 Morgan Jefferies (West Wales Raiders)

17 Karlin Claridge (West Wales Raiders)

18 Liam Silver (Torfaen Tigers)

 

REPORTS START

RANKING SEMI-FINAL – ENGLAND 8 WALES 10

Wales completely deserved their 10-8 win over England after pounding their defence for much over the game.

Inspired by head coach Shane Eccles, who gave his players a team talk to end all team talks and after watching video messages from families back home, in the style of “Wanted Down Under”, the Dragons were all fired up.

They forced the English into giving away a number of penalties, and finally the wall of white crumbled down when Liam Silver got the second of his two tries late on,

England took the lead after a good passing move found an unmarked Gregory Howland who scored in the corner.

A Connor Farrer grubber kick came to nothing as Wales looked for a try back.

They eventually got one after Silver leapt on a grubber to score in the corner to level things at 4-4.

But England regained the advantage when Halton found a gap on the wing to score giving them an 8-4 lead at the break.

Wales earned a repeat set early in the second half and from the drop-out, England gave away a penalty for offside with Wales twice being held up over the line from the resulting set.

England knocked on underneath the sticks then gave away a penalty and Wales finally went over through Silver again with Paul Edwards converting.

There were 30 seconds to go and England had a chance to win but the Welsh held strong.

FIFTH-SIXTH PLAY-OFF – SCOTLAND 16 WALES 10

Scotland clinched an even fifth-sixth play-off game with a last second try, but it was a vast improvement for Wales on yesterday’s clash between the two nations.

Wales took the lead through a well-worked move where Liam Silver set up Paul Edwards who ran under the sticks and converted himself.

Scotland hit back straight away when Matt Hogg broke through to ground but failed to convert.

But from kick-off again, Wales scored their second when Karlin Claridge dived over to make it 10-4 at half-time.

A Davey Dixon try converted by Hogg with three minutes to go, levelled the scores at 10-10, and a mistake at the play-the-ball gave the Bravehearts the opportunity to score the winner, one that they didn’t waste, Luke Westman grounding just before the hooter with Hogg converting.

FULL DAY TWO RESULTS AND RANKINGS

MEN’S TOURNAMENT – DAY TWO

10.45am – Ranking semi-final – Scotland 16 Papua New Guinea 14

11.10am – Ranking semi-final – England 8 Wales 10

1pm – Major semi-final – Australia 18 Samoa 10

1.25pm – Major semi-final – Tonga 22 Fiji 6

2.15pm – Seventh / Eighth Place “Bowl” play-off – Papua New Guinea 0 England 14

2.40pm – Fifth / Sixth Place “Shield” play-off – Scotland 16 Wales 10

5.25pm – Bronze medal match – Samoa 20 Fiji 6

5.50pm – Gold medal match – Australia 14 Tonga 8

RANKINGS

1. Australia
2. Tonga
3. Samoa
4. Fiji
5. Scotland
6. Wales
7. England
8. Papua New Guinea

WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT – DAY TWO

11.35am – Semi-Final – Australia 14 Cook Islands 8

12pm – Semi-Final – Tonga 0 Samoa 20

1.50pm – Fifth / Sixth Place “Shield” play-off – Canada 16 Fiji 12

4pm – Bronze medal match – Cook Islands 20 Tonga 0

4.25pm – Gold medal match – Australia 14 Samoa 8

RANKINGS

1. Australia
2. Samoa
3. Cook Islands
4. Tonga
5. Canada
6. Fiji

PHYSICAL DISABILITY TOURNAMENT – DAY TWO

10.20am – Australia 0 New Zealand 0

12.35pm – New Zealand 0 Commonwealth All Stars 0

3.05pm – Gold medal match – Australia 0 New Zealand 0 – Australia win Gold due to superior group record.

RANKINGS

1. Australia
2. New Zealand
3. Commonwealth All Stars