Welshmen star in GB Students win

Five Wales students starred in the Great Britain Students Rugby League side this Saturday as they recorded an historic 10-4 win over Australia Students in Brisbane.

One of the Welshmen, Chris McNamara (Loughborough University) was Man of the Match with Mark Wool (Leeds Met), Patrick Evans (Gloucester University) and brothers Owain and Iwan Brown (both Glyndwr) also playing.

Jimmy Keinhorst gave Great Britain the lead with Mike Sykes also scoring and Nigel Scott kicking one conversion.

It was the second of three matches in the “Academic Ashes” with the first game last Tuesday ending in a 20-20 draw.

Former Wales boss Clive Griffiths is the assistant coach of the Great Britain side and he was delighted with their efforts.

“That was one of the best defensive performances I’ve ever seen from any rugby side, league or union,” he said. “It was a pleasure to watch and what an historic win that was for Great Britain. We should have won the first game but let them back in for a draw but we’re one up in the series now and it sets everything up nicely for the decider in Cairns on Wednesday. Hopefully we can go on and win that and take the Academic Ashes in Australia for the first time.”