photo by Paul Hart

A late flurry of tries at Porthcawl gave the Bridgend Blue Bulls a 44-18 win over the Cardiff Demons.

In front of a large crowd Bridgend took an early lead thanks to tries from Jamie Murphy and Christiaan Roets, with Murphy also converting both, but most of the first half belonged to the Demons who dominated play and were awarded a succession of penalties eventually resulting in a score for scrum half Doug Hann, Chris Holcombe converted to make the score 12-6 at half time. The Demons however should have been ahead but found it tough to break through a strong Bridgend defence.

Early in the second half the Demons did make the pressure tell when hooker Miles Davies slid over from close range and

Holcombes goal brought the scores level and then some clever play from Ben Kerr put centre Idris Evans over which Holcombe again converted to give Cardiff a deserved 18-12 lead.

But Man of the Match Shaun Owens then scored a great individual try and Murphy again brought the scores level before teenage centre Nathan Hawkins raced over after Craig Fox took a quick penalty and Murphy’s fourth goal gave the Bulls a six point lead.

Cardiff looked like they would hit straight back but David James intercepted what would have been a scoring pass and from then on it was one way traffic and further tries from Lloyd O’Connor, Craig Fox, Karl Hocking and a second from Christiaan Roets gave the home team a 44-18 victory

After the game new Blue Bulls captain Lloyd O’Connor said “when we kept things simple and completed our sets we scored but we gave too many penalties away in middle part of game and our game became disjointed. But considering that we are all delighted with the big win and are now looking forward to taking on the Steelers next weekend”.

article by Simon Green
23 May 2009