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| Titans 22 Fighting Irish 32 | ||
| Aberavon Fighting Irish opened their 2004 Total RL.com Summer Conference (Welsh Division) rugby league campaign with a hand fought victory over newcomers Newport Titans. The Irish, blooding a number of newcomers including Aberavon Wizards’ players David Hawkins, Paul Morgan, Ceri Thomas and Paul Breeze as well as four 17 year olds; Adam Dawe, Lee Imperato, Resolven Youth product Mark Burke and Llanelli Scarlets academy player Geraint Davies in the second row; looked the better team in the opening exchanges and a clever grubber kick by recent Aberavon recruit Phil Carleton put David Dyer over in the corner for a four point lead after only 2 minutes. But the Titans, coached by former dual code international David Walkins, and well led by GB Students international Dan Clements, hit back with a converted try by Ross Palmer after 6 minutes, and pulled themselves back into the contest, until second row Simon Bailey forced his way over in the corner, for the visitors, with a quarter of the match over. Two further tries in quick succession by Paul Morgan, after a lung bursting length of the field dummying run, and David Hawkins, both converted by Scully, took the score to 20-6 in favour of the Aberavon outfit, and an easy victory looked on the cards. But nobody had told the rugby league newcomers the script because back they came with converted tries by Richard Davies and skipper Mark Wheeler, to reduce the deficit to 20-18 at the interval. The opening period of the second half was littered with handling errors, but the strong running Jason Massey and replacement prop Chris Hunt, continued to ask questions of the Newport defence, and young Burke, looking every inch a rugby league star in the making, was at the heart of everything the |
Fighting Irish did. 15 minutes into the second half saw a neat try by Clements in the Newport midfield to take the lead 22.20 and the Fighting Irish had real cause for concern with the powerful Newport forwards, recruited from local union clubs reveling in the hurly burly of the physical encounters. Nevertheless a few tactical substitutions for the visitors proved to be masterstrokes with Dai Burns and Maesteg RFC’s Liam Gadd opening up the visitors defence with ease. So much so, Gadd crossed for a brace, one after a try line interception following a sustained period of Titans` pressure, to race the length of the field, to take the score to 28-20 in favour of the Irish. Despite a stream of home attacks, many of which were thwarted by young debutantes Thomas Connolly (Aberavon Green Stars) and the combative Scot O’Kelly, the Titans failed to breach the Irish defence, and when skipper Scully forced his way over to give the Irish a 32-22 lead, with only 4 minutes remaining, the match was over as a contest. A hard victory over a team of game newcomers pleased the Fighting Irish faithful, and the impressive teenage debutantes were a source for real optimism. Newport Titans look set for a mid-table finish in their inaugural year, and with better organisation, and a continued player recruitment drive, the Fighting Irish could well be challenging for top honours again come the business end of the tournament, supported by Parkhouse Recruitment, in August. Next up for the Fighting Irish is a home fixture against Swansea Valley Miners, this coming Sunday, May 9th as a curtain raiser to Aberavon Wizards’ Premier League encounter against champions elect Newport RFC, at the Talbot Athletic Ground, kick off 1pm.
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