Words: Ian Golden. Pic: Kate Pronger
Wales prepared well for the Celtic Cup with a healthy 44-12 win against a physical, hard-hitting USA side, in an exciting match that had the large crowd enthused throughout.
The young Welsh, who fielded the sixth (known) youngest Wales men’s starting side of all time, showed they had the skill and fitness and entertained the crowd throughout with their victory.
The Welsh took an early lead after Charlie Newton kicked a first-minute 40-20. From the resulting set, Will Jones scored the first of his international debut hat-trick. Matty Fozard couldn’t land the kick.
But the visitors soon had the advantage, albeit briefly. Tevita Bryce scored just to the right of the sticks, and Esteban Tupuola easily landed the conversion.
Wales regained the lead on 13 minutes. From a quick tap penalty, Tokoaitua Owen sliced open the defence and dived over, also securing a try on his debut. Newton converted.
USA were stacking up the penalties. From the fourth that they gave away, Wales attacked well and the ball was sent out to Jones, who dived over for his second of the game. Newton missed the kick.
But the visitors hit back again. Tupuola was held up over the line and from the next play, Daniel Vidot outjumped Jones to catch the ball, twist and ground. Tupuola converted.
Now just two points up, Wales needed to score the next try, and they did just that. Owen Restall scoring in the corner on 34 minutes, then on the first set after kick-off, a very good passing move that split the USA defence, culminated with Jones securing his hat-trick try. Both tries went unconverted.
USA weren’t giving up, but it was their strength keeping them in the game. In an early second-half Welsh attack, debutant Oliver Garmston looked like he’d been hit by a truck in a tackle that could win a hit of the season award in any league, which had the crowd crying out in unison, but it was in fact Tupuola, who was playing well to keep his side in the game.
After keeping out a USA attack, which fizzled out on the final tackle, Wales went upfield with a length of the pitch set, which ended in a good break from Owen, who fed the ball to Max Clarke and in turn palmed off to Sam Dickenson, who scored under the posts. Newton converted to put the score up to 28-12.
And as Wales won their ninth penalty of the match, they scored their seventh try. Taine Woodford, yet another Wales player winning his first cap, scored under the posts, with Newton adding the goal to well and truly cement the victory, with still a quarter of the match remaining.
The eighth try came in the 72nd minute. Owen created the try with a good long pass out wide to Max Clarke who ran through a gap and scored. Newton couldn’t convert.
Wales’ two most experienced players teamed up for the final try, which was four minutes from time. Ant Walker created it, powering his way near to the line before offloading to Matty Fozard, who twisted his way over, with Newton converting.
Wales men’s head coach, Paul Berry, said: “They were young, athletic and physical, so we understood we might be on the back foot, but we knew we could trouble them if we gained good field position, which we did.
“We’ve got another two games in the Celtic Cup after this, so we’ll go away, dust ourselves down, and then review and reflect before our training session in mid-week ahead of Scotland.”
