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Cardiff Demons turned in a golden performance in their 50th competitive match to hammer St Albans Centurions 66-14 and set up a meeting with Thorne Moore Marauders in the Total Rl.com National Rugby League Conference Shield Final in two weeks time.
It was end to end action for only the first five minutes as early semi-final nerves affected both sides causing mistakes aplenty.
Demons top scorer, Gareth Jones opened the Cardiff account in the sixth minute taking advantage of a Pete Moore grubber kick that rebounded off a Centurions defender only ten metres from the line.
Cardiff could have extended their lead in the 10th but Andy Jones was held up on the line after a typically powerful run from the prop. But in fact it was his fellow West Welshman, Neil Thomas who powered over in the 17th to make it 10-0.
Cardiff didn’t have it all their own way in the first half. While Andrew Bradshaw and Neil Thomas both had tries disallowed, Mark Bow was sin binned for following through on the tackle.
Being down to 12 men often sees a team’s heads go down but in this case it served only to inspire the Demons to stamp their authority on the game with two tries in five minutes. First Gareth Jones weaved his way through on the right after the first passage through on the left was blocked then Kyle Blake finished off a 30 metre Jamie Iles run to make the score 20-0 at half-time.
Rather than sitting back, Cardiff went out all guns blazing in the second half with two tries in the first five minutes, Gareth Jones running through the defence like it was butter for the first before Pete Moore brushed off Danny Milldale to ground after being set up by Dave Roberson.
St Albans scored just three tries in the match, all of them coming from Demons mistakes. Dave Ashton was first on the board for the Centurions picking up a loose ball to score in the right hand corner bringing the score back to 32-4.
However this was just a brief interval in the Demons scoring machine as three tries in the next seven minutes put the game beyond all reasonable doubt.
Following a lost ball from a St Albans scrum, Andy Jones forced his way through. Straight from kick-off Mark Dando ran 70 metres, ignoring his support, to ground for another. Soon after, Idris Evans had a try disallowed for a forward pass but made up for it by setting up Neil Thomas to score in the corner only two minutes later.
Centurions pulled another back in the 63rd with their try of the match, a 30 metre run from Danny Milldale evading three tackles to make it 48-8. But Cardiff reasserted their dominance three minutes
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later when hooker, Mark Bow, who had worked tirelessly all night for the fire service and now all afternoon on the rugby field, was on hand to take the ball over the line after Gareth Jones had been tackled half a metre short.
St Albans benefited from recovering a short kick-off and when the Demons failed to deal with Jock Maylin’s grubber kick, Ollie Neville went in for the try.
Cardiff had time to finish their best performance of the season with two memorable tries. The first on 74 minutes came from a Moore cross-kick that was palmed down by Rhodri Thomas into the arms of Roberson. The second saw Gareth Jones sprint 30 metres to the halfway line offloading to Idris Evans who made no mistake covering the rest of the ground.
Cardiff's assistant coach Anthony Loxton commented, "With this performance we could have beaten anybody and that includes Bridgend and Aberavon. It wasn't as if St Albans were a bad side, it was just that we played better than ever before. We've reached our best form at the most crucial time of the season and we're proud to be Wales' representatives on finals day in two weeks' time."
TEAMS
DEMONS
James Iles, Idris Evans, Rhodri Thomas, Neil Thomas, Andrew Bradshaw, Gareth Jones, Peter Moore, Graham Hughes, Mark Bow, Andy Jones, Mark Dando, Dave Roberson, John Byers. Subs (all used): Anthony Loxton, Pat Howell, Tom Young, Kyle Blake.
Tries: Gareth Jones (6, 30, 44), Neil Thomas (14, 58), Blake (35), Moore (46), Andy Jones (52), Dando (54), Bow (66), Roberson (76), Evans (79)
Goals: Gareth Jones 9/12
Sinbin: Bow (following through on tackle)
CENTURIONS
Dave Bell, Danny Milldale, Luke Baxter, Dave Hackett, Dave Ashton, Brian Molyneux, Jock Malin, Damien Poulter, Craig Gunnell, George Stone, Ollie Neville, Rob Lamb, Greg Vincent. Subs (all used): Simon Lye, Shaun Stewart, Andy Weldon, Dave McGowan.
Tries: Ashton (48), Milldale (63), Neville (70).
Goals: Milldale 1/3
Sinbin: Malin (punching)
Men of the Match:
Demons: Dave Roberson
Centurions: Brian Molyneux
Half time: 20-0
Referee: Andy Howe
GAMESTAR: Dave Roberson gave a hard-working powerful performance assisting in the creation of a number of tries while grounding once himself.
GAMEBREAKER: Two tries for the Demons while they were down to 12 men proved that there was only going to be one winner.
Article by Ian Golden
22 Aug 2004
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