photo by Jane Harris

The Bridgend Blue Bulls and West Wales Sharks both face their second competitive matches in four days when they host the Cardiff Demons and Neath-Port Talbot Steelers respectively this Saturday.

The sides meet at Porthcawl last Wednesday with Bridgend getting back to winning ways with a 42-4 victory. The game saw the return of Gareth David and Marc Davies who haven’t played for the Bulls since 2005 and 2004 respectively and both had fine games collecting 18 points between them.

The Bulls will be hoping their players came through unscathed against the Sharks as they face a Cardiff Demons side still on a high after beating table toppers Newport in their last outing while Cardiff will hope the likes of Gareth Jones and Miles Davies can lead them to their first every victory over the reigning champions.

Demons player-coach Andrew Bradshaw said “it’s a massive game for both teams and we are looking forward to it, we had a great win over Newport and hope to continue that form against Bridgend who are a side we hold in the greatest respect as they are a team we have never beaten”.

The Steelers make the trip West to take

on the Sharks hoping to claim their first away win of the season and move away from the bottom half of the table while the Sharks will want to repeat their superb win over the Demons in their last home game.

At Pill Harriers RFC the Newport Titans will hope to get the season back on track when they host the Valley Cougars and the Titans will certainly not underestimate the Ferndale based side after their shock win over Bridgend. Cougars Chairman Mark Rowley said “beating the Bulls was fantastic and was a great reward for all the hard work put in over the summer, but we now have to match or even better that performance if we are going to beat the Titans in their own back yard”.

The final game of the day sees a local derby at Pontypool between the Torfaen Tigers and Blackwood Bulldogs. The Tigers will be favorites to win on their own turf but they will have to be on top form to beat a Blackwood side containing flying wing David James who starred in the Wales A victory over Scotland last weekend.

All conference games kick off at 2:30pm with the Celtic Crusaders taking on Workington Town at the Brewery Field at 6pm in a crucial National League 2 match. The Crusaders have teamed up with some of the local conference sides and have offered complimentary tickets to their supporters. Over 200 tickets have been given to the Bridgend Blue Bulls ahead of their match with the Demons and these will be given out to the first 200 supporters who enter the Porthcawl ground. “This is a great gesture” said Bulls Team Manager Simon Green “and I hope it will result in bigger attendances at all games this weekend”.

article by Simon Green
21 June 2007