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RUGBY LEAGUE AMATEUR "4
NATIONS" TOURNAMENT
SCOTLAND 22 Wales
40
Thomas is
hat-trick hero as Wales spring leaks in the Scots defence.
The
Scotland team were
dealt a double blow before the game with both injury doubts from
the Edinburgh Eagles club, Shaun Boyle and Captain Steve Bisset
failing late fitness tests in this, the first match in the
Inaugural 4 Nations Tournament at Burnbrae, Glasgow.
The Scots looked to
have gained the upper hand within the
first couple of minutes after the referee adjudged the Welsh
defence to be in an offside position deep in their own half.
Student Robin Laing put the ball between the uprights to give the
Scots an early 2 point advantage.
However, their lead was short lived however and in the 6th minute, a knock-on from
Scots winger, Ross Neil gave the tourists a scrum deep inside home territory
and some lovely play along the line allowed Sion Williams to touchdown in the corner.
Aled James and his trusty feet put the Welsh 2-6 to the good.
Midway through the first half and the Scots made good use of their sets of 6,
however, fell 5 metres short and the turnover proved fatal. The Welsh took it to the
home side and Eagles second-row John McDonald was penalised for interfering on
the ground to give the Welsh another set of six tackles. The ball was realised to an
on-rushing Rhondri Thomas and the Cardiff Demons centre burst through for his first
of the day. James slotted the conversion to put the Welsh in the driving seat at 2-12.
The Scots rallied round at this point and a fine series of 6 which ended with Edgar forcing a
knock on from the Welsh after a grubber kick and from this Wales began to encroach the line.
The referee awarded the Scots a penalty and Lang kicked to narow the deficit to 4-12.
On the half hour the Scots continued their fight back and a tremendous break from defence by Edgar
allowed him to skip free from three tackles to release Ross Neil who shrugged off the attentions
of two chasing defenders to go in in the corner. Lang converted to bring the Scots within 2 points
of their opponents.
On the stroke on half-time, the Welsh struck what appeared to be the killer blow with fast open play and
clever offloads to give Rhondri Thomas his second try of the day under the sticks. James converted
with the last kick of the half to put the Welsh in at the turnaround 10-18 to the good.
Half Time - Scotland 10 Wales 18
The hosts came out in the second half on fire and it took just three minutes for them to record another
try. Inventive play through the middle of the park allowed Edgar to get his hands on the ball on the
5th tackle and his neat kick bounced kindly up into his hands as he chased through to put the Glasgow
player in for a try. Lang successfully converted from in front of the posts.
10 minutes into the second half and after a brief spell of indiscipline by the Welsh, which the
Scots failed to turn into points, the referee spotted a knock-on by the Scots in the tackle and from the
resultant play, Pete Moore got his name on the score-sheet. The kick by James was unsuccessful.
On the hour, Scotland Students star, Ash Carrol, was penalised for leading into the tackle with a elbow
and as the Scots defence tried to regroup, Thomas went in for his hat-trick. The conversion was good by
James.
As the game went into it's final ten minutes, the Welsh appeared to dig deep and ran the Scots over the
park and it was Player/Manager, Stuart Singleton who shrugged off the desperate challenges of the Scots
defence to run in for 4 points. The conversion was slotted by Richard Singleton to make the score
16-34.
Scotland rallied round and after another fine break by the energetic Barry Edgar, it was Dunbartonshire
Dragons full-back Simon Corrigan who broke the strong Welsh defence to dive over the line for a well deserved
try. Playmaker Edgar converted the kick to make it 22-34.
The game was deep into injury time as the Welsh topped their trip to Scotland with a try by Mark Dando,
despite fantastic efforts by Edinburgh winger Oshagemi who put in four successive tackles in defence.
The final scoring for the day was from Richard Singleton's boot who converted the try to seal a 22-40 win
for the Welsh Amateurs.
Final Score - Scotland 22 Wales 40
Teams:
Scotland:
1.Simon Corrigan, 2.Ross Neil, 3.Kenny WIllich, 4.Stewart Naismith,
5.Peter Oshagemi, 6.Barry Edgar, 7.Robin Lang, 8.John Malakoty,
9.James Knight, 10.Keiron Watret, 11.John McDonald, 12.James
McKay, 13.Clint Brown. Subs: 14. Ash Carrol, 15.Andrew
Borthwick, 16.Ian Penderleith, 17.Neil Foster, 18.Niall McDonald.
Tries:
Neil, Edgar (2). Con: Lang (2), Edgar (1). Penalties: Lang
(2).
Wales:
1.Matt Cannon, 2.Ben Kerr, 3.Rhondri Thomas, 4.Sion Williams,
5.Richard Pepperill, 6.Aled James, 7.Scott O'Kelly, 8.Mark Dando,
9.Gareth Honor, 10. Anthony Lockston, 11.Gareth Morgan, 12.Richard
Singleton, 13.Stuart Singleton. Subs: 14.Andy Cough,
15.Richard Davies, 16.Andy Jones, 17.Pete Moore.
Tries: Thomas
(3), Williams (1), Dando (1), S.Singleton (1), Moore (1).
Con: James (4), R.Singleton (2).
Scotland's Clint
Brown is due to make his debut for NFP side, Gateshead Thunder
just 24 hours after playing in today's game. The match is,
ironically, against Workington Town, where Clint was part of the
Academy set-up recently.
Source - Mark Brown
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