Coach Phillips passes the try habit to Quins hooker

CARMARTHEN Quins head coach Emyr Phillips couldn’t have asked for more from his hooker Dom Booth as the home side powered to victory.

Phillips, the former Scarlets and Wales hooker, scored many tries during his career from driving mauls and he could only sit back and admire Booth’s poaching skills as he helped himself to a hat-trick.

“The weather suited us and we overcame them with a power game. Given the forwards we had available to us, we knew what we could do,” said Phillips.

“I was really happy with the way the players managed the game. We had to ride out a bit of an early storm from RGC, but after that we were pretty much in control.”

The North Walians had no answer to the Quins’ forward muscle as they fell to consecutive defeats, having lost at home to Cardiff the previous weekend.

Three driving mauls allowed Booth to steal the limelight and cement Quins’ place in the top half of the table.

The hosts were looking to maintain their unbeaten home record having beaten Llanelli and Swansea in their two games to date, but they knew they were in for a dogfight in testing conditions.

RGC, seeking their first win over the Quins since April 2017, got early success from their kicking game to force their hosts back into their own territory.

The early pressure led to a penalty that Billy McBryde thumped through the uprights from long range for a three-point lead as the rain poured down.

Quins outside-half Jac Wilson levelled the scores before their pack began to turn the screw on the visitors.

They asserted their dominance midway through the first period as they shunted a line-out over the line for Booth to claim his first score.

Wilson converted but not before RGC lock Robin Williams was sent to the sin-bin for attempting to haul down the decisive maul.

McBryde cut the lead with a penalty before centre Tom Hughes was shown yellow to leave the visitors with 13 men.

Wilson sent the kick deep into the corner again and watched an exact replica of the first score play out in front of him as Booth was pushed over the line to make it 15-6 at half-time.

The RGC pack were taught another harsh lesson just before the hour mark when the hosts produced a carbon copy of their previous two scores to snatch a treble for Booth. Ed Siggery was shown a yellow card for the hosts, but RGC failed to take advantage and left empty-handed.

CARMARTHEN QUINS: Tries: D Booth (3). Cons: J Wilson (2). Pens: J Wilson.

RGC: Pens: B McBryde (2).