The Tigers were desperate for a win, and once again, as they have been many times this season, the Cougars were dogged in their resilience and never say die attitude.

Cougars took the lead in the first minute after Torfaen fumbled the kick off in the in goal area and forced to dropout.  They then conceded a penalty with a short drop out and Andrew Watts ran in. Ross Lucas converted.

But Torfaen made up for this by scoring three quick tries – one from Damien Smith and two from Matt Entwhistle, who converted his tries himself.

Cougars struck back after the 20 minute mark. Ross Lucas made a great cross field kick which was fumbled by the Tigers defence and Scott Belmont jumped on the error to score. They then took an 18-16 lead when John Breakingbury scored in the corner and Lucas kicked the tricky conversion

But Entwhistle got two more tries before half-time, converting them both himself again to put Torfaen into a ten-point lead at half-time.

Rhys Davies added another, converted by Entwhistle, just after the interval before Breakingbury ran half the length of the field for one back for the Cougars.

Tigers Chairman Bob Bendon was delighted with the win. His son and assistant coach, Scott Bendon who was coaching the team this evening said: "It was great win for Nolan Nicklin who captained the team for the first time in his five years with the club, and a superb all round performance from man of the match Matt Entwhistle."

article by Ian Golden
19 July 2006