WELSH RUGBY LEAGUE ROUNDUP
BRIDGEND BLUE BULLS 46 WEST WALES RAIDERS 30 AT PYLE RFC BRIDGEND Blue Bulls bounced back from their opening day defeat with an impressive second half performance to overcome West Wales Raiders 46-30.
Last year’s Welsh Conference champions showed that they will be in contention to take the first Premier League title as they easily overcame their Llanelli opponents following a close first period.
Raiders took a 6-0 lead early on through a Daf Phillips try that Taylor Phillips converted, but that was the first and only time in the match that they would be ahead.
Bridgend soon raced into a 22-6 lead after scoring four consecutive tries.
Ross Jones, Lewis Rees, Rhys Pope and Rory Bodenham all crossed for Bridgend, with Jack Dryden convert- ing once and Nathan Hawkins twice.
Two unconverted tries for Iwan Mayze and another from Ben Hunter brought the score back to 22-18 at half-time, and at four tries each, the scene was set for a climatic second half.
But it wasn’t to be, as Bridgend dominated. Pope and Jones were soon both over for their second tries each, and a Raymond Evans effort, converted by Dryden took the score up to 36-18.
An Ellis Simon try, converted by Mayze, brought the score back to 3624 but after Pope and Rory Bodenham went over for further Bridgend tries, Dryden converting the second, the game was over.
Only a Rhys Davies try, converted by Mayze, gave the Raiders anything further to cheer about in the latter stages of the game. TORFAEN TIGERS 32 CARDIFF BLUE DRAGONS 24 AT CWMBRAN RFC A REMARKABLE comeback from Torfaen Tigers gave them a 32-24 win over Cardiff Blue Dragons in a thriller in Cwmbran.
Torfaen lost at home to the Cougars last week and their win over Cardiff, who beat Bridgend last week, shows that the Premier League competition is wide open for anyone to win.
The sides swapped unconverted tries early on, Cardiff scoring first through Jordan Hylton after just four minutes, with Dewi Billingham levelling things a few minutes later.
An unconverted Fraser Stroud try put Torfaen into an 8-4 lead before Cardiff regained the advantage, Phillip Pariyo scoring on 19 minutes with Kyle Rose converting.
A try from Brandon Williams gave Cardiff a 14-8 lead at the interval, and they soon extended their advantage with two tries from Dan Crimmins, one of which was converted by Rose to make it 24-8 on 53 minutes.
That was before the Tigers made an amazing comeback. Chris Wannell scored on the hour but the conversion was missed.
From kick-off, Ben Williams added another and before Cardiff had time to get their breath back, Tom Matthews was also over. Fraser Stroud converted both and ten minutes after being 16 points down, the scores were level.
Torfaen kept up their momentum. They took the lead through an Evan Wynne try before Morgan Knight added another for good measure to complete an outstanding victory. RHONDDA OUTLAWS 10 VALLEY COUGARS 80 AT SARDIS ROAD, PONTYPRIDD VALLEY Cougars had too much ex- perience for the fledgling Rhondda Outlaws side as they romped to an 80-10 victory in Pontypridd.
For the Cougars, it was a welcome return to one of their former home grounds, and they celebrated with a dominant performance, running in 14 tries.
The Cougars went 12-0 up thanks to early tries from Mike Hurley and Craig Lewis both converted by Hurley.
David Albertelli will go in the record books as scoring the Outlaws’ their first ever open-age try which was converted by Shaun Bags to make the score 12-6 but Cougars let rip after that.
Yousif Sulliman and Rhys Davies each scored two tries, with Ethan Coombes, Adam Watton, Ryan Davies, Cobi Green, Adam Watton, Steve Bray, Macauley Harris and Scott Giles each crossing once. Hurley added another 10 conversions.