Season’s best, says skipper as Quins prove too strong

CARM QUINS.................35 RGC.................................22

CARMARTHEN Quins captain Haydn Pugh says his side produced their best performance of the season to defeat RGC 1404 and climb into the top half of the table.

The bonus-point victory came courtesy of a hard-working pack which had the better in tight and loose and did the basics well throughout a free-flowing encounter.

The visitors looked sharp behind the scrum in the early exchanges, but the Quins withstood the pressure with flanker Ellis Lloyd winning turnovers before a penalty from full-back Aled Thomas gave them a 3-0 lead.

The RGC backline looked the more dangerous early on with ball in hand and wing Sam Jones chipped ahead and full-back Dion Jones gathered to race in under the posts, with fly-half Billy McBryde converting.

The lead continued to change hands with a Dale Ford try putting the hosts back ahead before McBryde’s penalty edged RGC in front until they were reduced to 14 men following Josh Leach’s yellow card.

Ford grabbed his second try of the match before Shaun Jones and Pugh earned the bonus point with Thomas adding all of the conversions, as well as two penalties.

RGC made the scoreline more respectable with late tries from Jordan Scott and Cam Davies.

“This was our biggest test of the season so far and we produced or best performance to beat a very dangerous side in RGC,” said Quins skipper Pugh.

“And for the boys in the pack to work me over for the bonus-point try in injury time made it a very good day all round.

“We knew that they would come at us all guns blazing behind the scrum but our tackling was top class.

“Our set-piece was also rock solid and the back row strong and brave in the contact area to get us home quite comfortably in the end.”

RGC head coach Mark Jones felt a lack of experience and clinical finishing was to blame for the defeat.

“The boys tried to force gaps that were not there and it led to us coughing up a lot of possession and disrupting our usual rhythm,” said the former Wales wing.

“That said, we created a number of excellent try-scoring chances early on and if we had taken them we could easily have been leading at half-time.

“We are a very young side and inexperience let us down.”

The Quins host Bridgend on Saturday, with RGC entertaining Bargoed.