South Wales Jets won their first ever Wheelchair match beating North Wales Crusaders 34-30 in a classic hard-hitting encounter.
The visitors started well. Martin Turner opened the scoring with a try on seven minutes, converting it himself.
South Wales Jets soon levelled. Dane Oram brilliantly caught a cross-kick to score the club’s first ever try in the Wheelchair game, with club captain Jamie Reynolds converting, before adding a penalty to put the score onto 8-6.
The lead was extended on 19 minutes thanks to a Leighton Morris try in the corner. Reynolds added the goals.
But Jonathan Gill got a try on the stroke of half time, converted by Martin Turner to put the score back to 14-12 at the break.
Jamie Reynolds soon extended Jets’ lead with a hat-trick of tries, converting the second.
Crusaders hit back in style when Ffion McCabe outpaced everyone with a great turn a pace to score under the sticks. Martin Turner converted to put the score back to 28-18 with ten minutes to go.
Then McCabe got his second, scoring in the corner. Martin Turner added the goal.
But player of the match Reynolds secured the match with his fourth try of the game that he converted. That score made it 34-24 with 90 seconds remaining.
Jamie Reynolds may have been player of the match, but his father, Jason Reynolds was sinbinned with seconds remaining. From the penalty, with extra time added on, Matthew Turner scored a consolation try in the corner for Crusaders. His father Martin converted, but it was too little too late.
The second match of the day, which was between Cardiff Blue Dragons and Aber Valley Wolves, was also evenly matched, with the game turning into a proper contest in the last eight minutes, when both sides went at it hammer and tongs to try and get the win.
But neither team could break through, with a combination of excellent defence and handling errors ensuring that the match ended in a 34-all draw.
The two sides swapped tries for the first 15 minutes.
A Charlie Puddick try gave Cardiff the lead on four minutes. Libbie Sargent couldn’t convert.
Wolves then took the lead. Oscar Hawkins made history with the first competitive try for the club, scoring under the sticks. Anthony Perrell converted.
Puddick raced in for his second soon after that with Sargent converting this time, before a Riley Jones try and Pennell goal for Wolves.
But tries from Sian Morris-Parker, Jess Booth and Wyatt Jones, the second converted by Daniel Martin to give Cardiff a 24-12 lead at the break.
Joshua Flowers went in to extend Cardiff’s advantage four minutes into the second half. Tomos Parker couldn’t convert but Cardiff had a 28-12 lead and that should have been enough to beat the newcomers.
But it wasn’t. Wolves hit back through two Hawkins tries, the first converted by Anthony Pennell to put the score back to 28-22.
Puddick soon got his hat-trick try to build a 10-point lead, but Cardiff still couldn’t put the game to bed, as tries from Riley Jones and Poppy Cayton, both converted by Pennell gave Wolves a 34-32 lead.
With eight minutes to go, Sargent hit a penalty over to level the scores, with neither side able to break through for the winner.
