Day Double Helps Warriors to Win

Two tries from Simon Day helped the Warriors win this frantic Christmas friendly

The Llanelli Warriors followed up their recent victory at Felinfoel with another solid performance at Betws.

Not surprisingly with it being Boxing Day, both sides showed various changes with Betws especially using the occasion to experiment.

This allowed the Warriors to start stronger and they never lost the lead in this exciting match. For the Warriors Dai Haines again proved their best ball carrier, guaranteeing they got over the gain line, Lloyd Crawley had perhaps his best game and Darren Pollitt was prominent.

For Betws Luke Pearce got stuck in, Matthew Anderson looked sharp in the centre and Mark Rewston controlled things effectively at scrum half.

For 3 quarters of the game it was a quite tight affair. Warriors first half scores were a short range effort from Mark Lewis and an arching run from wing Simon Day. For Betws, Gareth Comley burst through to the line despite a last ditch tackle.

In the 2nd half Nathan Peter rounded off a flowing Betws move but their best try fell to veteran Paul Davies who capitalised on some good work from the forwards to crash over under the posts. James Duke scored a remarkable effort when he broke a tackle in midfield and ran fully 60 meters.

It was only in the last quarter that the Warriors finally pulled away. Jamie Evans and Dan John stepped their way over and then the two wings finished things off, Debutant Nick DCruz capped a fine game with a try in one corner and then Day pounced on a loose ball and sneaked in almost on the final whistle.

The final scoreline probably flattered the Warriors but no one was over concerned in the good natured spirit of the day.

Warriors: Dan John, Simon Day (Nick DCruz*, Ben Winstanley (Ethan Walters), Adam Fussell, Tom Ashour, Jamie Evans, Aled Herbert* Mark Lewis. Richard Evans (Colin Tacon), James Duke, John Horwood (Lloyd Crawley), Darren Pollitt, Gareth Ladd (Kieron Morgan), Dai Haines, Gwilym Lewis *debutants

Betws: Dylan Rees, Anthony O'Neil, Paul JJ Davies, Mark Rewston, Dan Hancock, Nathan Peters, Gareth Comley, Richard Griffiths, Matthew Anderson, Dale Barfoot, Luke Pearce, Cellan Davies

Ref: Derrick Morgan

After a slight panic to get a team we eventually (once taxis had arrived from Llanelli and the bus had detoured to Furnace) had a full 19 players which was lucky with Ethan, Kieron, Dcruz, Sideshow, Daydream, Ben Princess and Ladd all helping Betws out at various points.

The match report pretty much covers the rugby. Jamie was unlucky to have a try disallowed, and JJ was lucky to have his given with DaCruz possibly forcing a knock on. Unfortunately there was no Twpsyn Mewn Office to help sexy dexy so the try stood.

Never mind the rugby, the Warriors dominated the beer pong with Jamie and Ben eventually triumphing in an all Warriors final.

Shame we couldn't win the Irish bingo or really have a go at the karaoke - instead it was back to Turksville for more drinking and dancing.

A cracking day all round.