Bumbles retake Cup as Home Rule continues

Bumble Bee Barbarians 29 21 Llanelli Warriors (H Bomb Cup).
The Warriors traveled to Bradford for the 6th H Bomb cup tie with the Bumbles, and again had to leave the trophy behind as once again home advantage told.

After a nightmare trip for the Warriors there was a delayed kick off before things got underway. Perhaos t was no surprise then that the Bumbles scored first, Ross Mcurich striding through from centre, Leon Taylor’s conversion giving the Bees the perfect start.

The Warriors settled after this and played some steady rugby, good work by the forwards gave Nathan Murphy some room and he got over the line, Simon Jenkins improved to even the scores.

Both sides played some good rugby, Lee Hainsworth like a wrecking ball for the Bees whilst Tom Hall’s rucking was crucial for the Warriors. Darryl Wilson extended the Bees lead as the game neared half time but the Warriors scored right on the break, Simon Jenkins intelligently putting his scrum half Gwilym Lewis in enough space for him to go through Wilson’s tackle to score, with Jenkins converting the Warriors turned around with a narrow 12-14 lead.

The lead didn’t last long though, the 2nd half starting like the 1st, Mcurich running straight through the forwards from the kick off. The soft nature of conceding that score seemed to inspire the Warriors with substitute Neil Parker having a strong run. Slowly they worked their way up field and eventually Liam Tobais muscled his way over from short range to reduce the deficit to 3 points. The match was nip and tuck, Warriors wings Richard Llewelyn and Tom Ashour a constant threat and with Mayers, Hall and Whitaker doing well for the Bees.

The Warriors shaded territory towards the end but they couldn’t break down a determined defense, and with the last move of the game Wilson broke clear and scored a long range try to seal the match and the cup for the Bumble Bees.
The standard of rugby was high throughout a tough match with the only disappointment being that time limitations meant it had to be truncated. The Bees will be pleased to have retained the trophy and will hope to mount the 1st successful defense next season in Llanelli.

Warriors: Craig James, Simon Day (Richard Llewelyn), Ben Winstanley, Nathan Murray, Thomas Ashour, Jamie Evans, Gwilym Lewis (Neil Parker), Mark Lewis (Chris Hancock), Jamal Ashour (Dai Haines), Huw Jenkins (Cpt) (Colin Tacon), John Horwood (Darren Pollitt), Andrew Davies (Tom Hall), Nathan Lawson (Zak Hopkins), Simon Jenkins, Liam Tobias.

additional: awful preparation for the Warriors with 10 hours on the bus and a quick dash via the hotel to the ground. Without wishing to take away from the Bumbles achivment with a fine victory, the try from the kick off of the 2nd half was far too soft.

Full back (without Lee) is proving our problem position and more experience there at the end might have saved us that final try.

Simon Jenkins was named man of the match just ahead of Tom Hall, Craig James and Tom Ashour. Solid debuts from Zak Hopkins and Jamal Ashour as well. A good and close game - well done boys.