Familiar face stars as RGC hit Llanelli with five tries

BILLY McBryde is a familiar face to Llanelli followers and it was his display for his new team RGC that helped send the Parc y Scarlets side to defeat in Colwyn Bay.

The North Walians ran in five tries to comfortably beat Llanelli and in the process secure their second bonus-point victory in succession.

Tries from McBryde, Iolo Evans, Evan Yardley, Andrew Williams and George Roberts were enough to get Mark Jones’s side over the line.

Fly-half McBryde scored 19 points in an outstanding individual display.

Tom Phillips claimed Llanelli’s only try with Ioan Hughes and Jonny Lewis kicking 14 points between them.

The home side seized the initiative in the early stages of the game when McBryde touched down between the posts after a nice break.

Llanelli clawed their way back into the contest with two penalties from Hughes.

But the home side enjoyed a physical edge over their hosts with Evans crossing in the far righthand corner off the back of a solid scrum.

The West Walians hit back when former Wales Under-20s captain Tom Phillips powered his way over from close range.

RGC began to lay siege on the Llanelli try line but had to make do with three points from McBryde’s

RGC 1404 ......................... 39 LLANELLI ......................... 19

boot for a 17-13 half-time lead.

Llanelli started the second half positively with Hughes closing the gap to a single point after RGC infringed at the breakdown.

Hughes and McBryde exchanged a further two penalties with the game finely balanced going into the final quarter.

The hosts finally breached Llanelli’s defence when hooker Yardley bundled his way over the line after a well-worked driving line-out.

Yardley’s try broke Llanelli’s resistance and Andrew Williams secured the try bonus when he crossed the whitewash after a period of sustained pressure by the hosts.

RGC’s driving line-out caused problems for Llanelli all afternoon and George Roberts was the final player to benefit from it when he crossed from close range to ensure a comfortable victory.

Llanelli are back in Premiership action on Saturday when they host Bridgend Ravens at Parc y Scarlets.

RGC LLANELLI