photo by Mark Harris

Valley Cougars and Cardiff Demons began the day second and third in the table respectively knowing that a win would guarantee home advantage in the play offs.

In a seesaw first half the Cougars were ahead through Sam Coomber after just three minutes but the Demons hit back with a well worked Miles Davies try converted by Shane Goddard.  The Demons took a 12-4 lead on thirty five minutes through stalwart centre Rhodri Thomas who ran in a seventy yards interception try. Stephen Parry touched down for the Cougars just before the break and converted his own try to make the half time score 12-10 to the Demons.

Early second half Demons pressure came to nothing but a Parry penalty on forty three minutes tied the scores.  Then the Cougars Rhodri Thomas emulated his Demons namesake by going in under the posts for Parry to convert. 

A Scott Belmont try on fifty one minutes, again converted by Parry extend the Cougars lead to twelve, but a sixty yard kick return by Demons Andrew Bradshaw brought it back to 24-16.

The complexion of the game changed radically on sixty two minutes with the sending off of Cougars Carl Thomas and after a Cougars penalty on seventy minutes Andrew Bradshaw grabbed his second to make it 20-26.

As the Demons looked to turn their man advantage into an equalising try, Ben Thomas applied a killer blow for the Cougars scoring in the corner to make it 20-30. A late Andrew Lee try was not enough for the Demons to find a way back and the Cougars consolidated second place with a 24-30 win.

article by Simon Davies
12 July 2008