Pic: Captured by Kate
South Wales Jets will, barring disasters, take on Aberavon Fighting Irish in the JES Group Rugby League Conference Grand Final a fortnight today.
Jets beat Rhondda Outlaws 60-18 on Saturday afternoon, whilst Bridgend Blue Bulls, who have a very outside chance of finishing second, lost 52-12 at home to top of the table Aberavon Fighting Irish, who end the regular season with a one hundred percent record.
It means that Bridgend have a points difference of 188 to overcome, and Jets must be beaten twice for the Blue Bulls to reach the final.
It took Jets less than a minute to take the lead when Jack Hodder went over for an unconverted try. Further scores from Tyler Jones and Hodder, the second converted by Matthew Morgan, put the score onto 14-0, before a brawl led to a yellow and red card for the Jets and a yellow for the Outlaws, giving the visitors a one-player advantage for the final hour.
However, that didn’t deter the home side and they were 36-0 up at half-time. Shane Lee went over on 25 minutes, quickly followed by Morgan, then two from Matthew Jacobs. Morgan converted three times before adding the first try of the second half and converting again.
Jets carried on looking like the advantaged side with tries from Ben Pinnock and Alex Langworthy (2) quickly following. Another Morgan goal brought the score up to 56-0.
Outlaws made a mini comeback after Mark Jones and Jamie Leech went over with both tries converted by Mason Apsee.
George Groves added the final Jets try, scored on the hour, with a MacKenzie Williams try for Outlaws converted by Apsee, rounding off the scoring with 13 minutes remaining.
Aberavon were 22-0 up in their match, thanks to two tries from Cody Rees and one each from Isaac Morgan and Jay Baker. Ryan Pugh kicked three goals.
They went leading 42-0 before Bridgend registered a score, Lewis Francis went over for a hat-trick of tries, Rhodri Roberts scored one try, plus there were two more Pugh goals.
Bridgend managed a brace of tries from Lewis Ingram, with goals from Charlie Stoddart and Llewellyn Hawkes, with Aberavon’s Dylan McLachlan also scoring twice late on and Pugh adding the final goal.
