Second half mistakes cost Cardiff
Swansea Valley Miners took advantage of Cardiff Demons’ defensive lapses to record an excellent 42-37 win at Taff’s Well.

Cardiff took the lead after seven minutes when skipper Daz White set up John-Paul Evans 40 metres out to run up the left flank and score under the posts. White converted.

Swansea equalised four minutes later after the ball was worked out to Gethin Daniel to score on the right.

Cardiff made it 12-4 on 19 minutes when Adam King danced down the left wing breaking two tackles to score under the posts.

But Swansea brought the gap back to two points again on 26 minutes after Craig Jones stormed over.

Cardiff struck back almost immediately, Jamie Iles scoring an excellent try in the corner and White successfully kicking a tricky conversion.

White followed this up with a field goal a few minutes later before intercepting a Miners pass setting up newcomer Andy Daniel to score in the right corner. White converted to make the score 25-10 at half-time.

The turning point in the game was in the first minute of the second half. Choosing to run the ball in himself rather than laying the ball off to Tom Burnell, Oliver Hughes was held up over the line.

Hughes knocked on in the resulting play-the-ball leading Swansea to go on the attack and following a mix-up in the Demons defence, Ashley James stormed over to score for Swansea.

This ignited Swansea’s fire and the Miners then went over for three more tries. James added another before Nick Boyce and Andrew Jenkins both scored from equally good runs.

Pat Howell got one back for Cardiff to make it 31-32 but Ken Allen and Andrew Ford wrapped things up for Swansea charging past the weak Demons defence. Matthew Martin’s last minute attempt was just a consolation.

Article by Ian Golden
2005