RUGBY LEAGUE

VALLEY COUGARS ..... 68 RHONDDA OUTLAWS .. 0

VALLEY Cougars cruised into the WRL Premier League final after a dominant 68-0 win over Rhondda Outlaws.

The Outlaws, late admissions into the playoffs, were notably second best throughout due to their enforced lack of preparation and it took just seven minutes for Jack Watkins to score the first try which went unconverted.

Dean Higgs scored the first of his hat-trick of tries on 15 minutes with Mike Hurley converting to make it 10-0.

Outlaws kept the Cougars out for the next quarter of an hour but three late second half tries, from Higgs, Daniel Blakemore and Shane Lee, all converted by Mike Hurley, gave them a 28-0 halftime lead.

The away side were disadvantaged in the first 10 minutes of the second half after having a player sent to the bin for a high tackle just before the break. Cougars took full advantage of this and Scott Giles, Rhys Davies, Rhys Spanswick all went over before they got back to full strength.

Cougars were on a momentum and wouldn’t let up. Two further Higgs tries, one more from Lee and another from Gethin King completed the rout. Hurley kicked six secondhalf goals, only missing with the final touch of the game, to end on 10 goals from Cougars’ 12 tries.

TORFAEN TIGERS ...... 40 CARDIFF BLUE DRAGONS ...................... 6

TORFAEN Tigers cruised through to the WRL Premier League final after beating Cardiff Blue Dragons 22-6.

They went 16-0 up through tries from Morgan Knight, Liam Silver and Dave Brunnock, two converted by Fraser Stroud, before Cardiff registered their only score via a Jamie Iles try which was converted.

Geoff Hick scored Torfaen’s fourth just before half-time, converted by Stroud to make it 22-4 at the break.

Cardiff were still in it but couldn’t capitalise. Second half tries from Silver, Brunnock and Euaun Morris, all converted by Stroud, sealed the victory.