In the clash between the top two sides in the league, the battle was as everyone expected, with Torfaen Tigers excelling in both attack and defence to achieve a hard-fought 44-26 win over North Wales Crusaders in a classic game of Wheelchair Rugby League.
The scores were level at half-time and rightly so as little separated the sides throughout the game.
Crusaders gave away a penalty from kick-off but Torfaen couldn’t take advantage. But from their second attack, Leighton Morris scored the opening try. Jamie Reynolds converted.
Following a penalty, Scott Trigg-Turner scored Torfaen’s second, with Reynolds again adding the goal.
Jamie’s father, Jason Reynolds won a race with the Crusaders’ defenders to score the third, his son failing to improve things on this occasion, making the score 16-0 on ten minutes.
Crusaders were level by 24 minutes with all points scored by their captain Matthew Turner. He notched a brace of tries, one in each corner, then went under the sticks for his hat-trick, converting the second and third.
Torfaen nearly scored twice in the final minute of the half but the score remained 16-all at the break.
In an almost carbon copy of the first half, the Tigers roared into action early and scored again scored 16 points in the first ten minutes, Jamie Reynolds with a try and two goals, and Trigg-Turner adding a couple of tries to put the score onto 32-16.
Crusaders hit back again. This time the try came from Martin Turner, Matthew’s father but for the second time in the game, the son couldn’t convert a father’s try.
Torfaen restored the balance after retrieving the ball from kick-off, Jason Reynolds forcing his way over the try which was improved by his son.
With his side three converted tries behind with ten minutes to go, former Wales captain Stuart Williams came back on and immediately reduced the deficit, scoring under the posts after being close a few tackles earlier. Matthew Turner converted.
Only some outstanding defence from Torfaen stopped a further Crusaders try from their next set, as three times in a row they tagged players as they were in the process of scoring a try.
Tigers went upfield and a try from Jason Reynolds sealed the game with his hat-trick try. Jamie converted.
Full timeline at bit.ly/4iNt9tR
In the first game of the day, Cardiff Blue Dragons saw off a spirited Swindon St George 28-16 to go third in the table.
After a tough first section of the game where both sides were finding it hard to break through, Lee Sargent eventually gave Cardiff the lead with an unconverted try on 12 minutes.
A Poppy Cayton try on 18 minutes doubled the advantage with Anthony Pennell converting to put the score onto 10-0 at half-time.
Swindon hit back early in the second half with a try from player-coach Tony Ellis. That was quickly followed up by an Oliver Matthews try under the sticks but the conversion attempt went just under the bar, keeping Cardiff in a two-point lead.
However they immediately followed that up with a third try when Nico Matthews scored in the corner. Wesley Newman soon added their fourth to put the score onto 16-10.
But the pendulum swung again following a brace of tries from Sargent, neither of which were converted, making it 18-16 and giving Cardiff a lead they wouldn’t lose.
Pennell and Sargent added further tries with Pennell adding the final goal.
Full timeline at bit.ly/42wEObx
