Sir Stanley praises the steel shown by Ironmen
SIR Stanley Thomas hailed his Merthyr’s heroes after they powered their way into next Sunday’s final of the Principality Premiership with a convincing play-off triumph over RGC at The Wern.
Multi-millionaire Sir Stanley, who has bankrolled the Ironmen’s revolution, saw his squad avenge a hattrick of defeats this season against the north Wales region.
But there wasn’t any prospect of RGC breaking Merthyr’s hearts, as they did in the final minute in a Welsh Cup semi-final last month, this time because the valleys side was out of sight long before the end.
Merthyr were trailing until eight minutes before half-time, but 10 later they were winning 29-7 after crossing for four tries and 26 points.
Three of them and 19 points came following the sin-binning of RGC lock Andrew Williams, who paid the price for his team’s persistent offending.
There wasn’t any way back for Welsh Cup holders RGC with their pack, minus its cornerstone Phil John, being shoved backwards at the scrum virtually every time it locked horns with fired-up opponents.
“I thought it was an outstanding game from both sides,” beamed Sir Stanley.
“In fairness to RGC, they had more pace than us in their backs and were dangerous but our pack was far superior throughout the game.
“I’m absolutely delighted for our management, players and supporters. Next Sunday’s final is going to be a cracking game.
“We have to remember we had lost three times to RGC this season, but our discipline was much better on this occasion. We’d lost against them because we’d had players off.
“We understand RGC is a WRU side and they are more or less fulltime professionals but we need that rugby, we need games like this because they are exciting for the supporters.”
RGC were 7-3 in front when the match turned on its head following a try from Merthyr flanker Ed Siggery in the 32nd minute.
No.8 Phil Rees was next to score, being on the end of a driving maul from a line-out, and the dam burst with right-wing Kyle Evans and hooker Rhys Williams touching down either side of half-time.
Despite battling away, RGC never looked like mounting a fight-back such was the grip the Merthyr forwards had and the only points that came during the last quarter was two penalties from the Ironmen.
RGC coach Mark Jones didn’t have any complaints, saying: “We were a bit light at second-row. Our captain Meredith Francis was missing and he was a huge loss.
“In our other three contests with Merthyr we had been able to stop them playing, but we looked a little bit jaded.
“We lacked a little bit of shape in our attack and our passing game wasn’t good enough. We gave Merthyr the final 60 minutes of the match,” added the former Wales and Scarlets wing.
Nevertheless, RGC’s inaugural season at this level has been a massive success, lifting the cup by beating Pontypridd in the final in the region’s first appearance at the Principality Stadium and reaching the top-four play-offs for the Premiership title.
“North Wales rugby in a lot better place than it was 12 months earlier – it’s been a good learning year,” said Jones.
“We are there to make players better, but we will defend the cup with a lot of pride next season.”
MERTHYR ........................ 35 RGC 1404 ............................ 7
Merthyr: Tries: E Siggery, P Rees, K Evans, R Williams; cons: M Jarvis (3); pens: Jarvis (2), D Gunter. RGC: Try: A Williams; con: J Botica. Yellow-card: H Williams (37) Ref: R Thomas (WRU)