WHITES STORM TO DERBY GLORY
SWANSEA...........................53 LLANELLI............................15
SWANSEA secured their first victory of the season with a bonus pointdemolition of rivals Llanelli.
The All Whites were dominant from start to finish with their visitors unable to compete physically.
“This result has been coming as we know we’ve been way behind where we should be with pre-season being delayed and the squad being on furlough,” said Swansea head coach Hugh Gustafson.
“We built a solid foundation up front and stopped Llanelli from playing their brand of rugby by pressuring them well at half-back and strangling any possession they did have.”
The home side began with a bang when a clever dummy by Hanno Dirksen confused the Llanelli defence, with the centre firing out a pass for Josh Carrington to score in the corner.
Ashleigh Hyndman took a line-out but the supporting Morgan MacRae was held up over the line. From the resulting drop-out Llanelli worked the ball out wide for Jonny Lewis to score. A second try followed for Swansea when Will Hickey got the ball quickly out of a set-piece, with Huw Sutton stretching over to score.
Matt Dodd made a break inside the 22, finding Jay Williams in support. The flanker injected pace into the attack and fed Liam Popham for a well-taken try under the posts.
The Swansea pack set the tone in the second half with a powerful penalty-winning drive. Popham found touch on the 22 and a maul set up a platform for Dodd to squeeze over for his side’s bonus-point try.
Harri Houston was tackled late after he kicked the ball downfield and Popham chipped to the corner. A patient build-up by the Swansea forwards saw the ball spread out to Osian Knott, who dived over for a try.
Moments later Carrington bagged his second try of the afternoon when Houston fired out a long pass for the winger to back his pace to score.
Leon McNally stole a Llanelli lineout and a clever short pass by Ben
Ley sent Knott over for his second try. Rhys Cherry scored a consolation try for Llanelli.
Swansea – Tries: J Carrington (2), H Sutton, L Popham, M Dodd, O Knott (2). Cons: L Popham (6). Pens: L
Popham (2).
Llanelli – Tries: J Lewis, R Cherry. Con: I Hughes. Pen: I Hughes.