Wales 22 Scotland 14
League Weekly report
By Gavin Willacy at Brewery Field, Bridgend

Wales held on to clinch an opening day win in the European Nations Cup at Brewery Field in controversial circumstances. With Wales leading 18-14 with just two minutes left, Ben Fisher hit Lee Briers with a late shot after the Welsh skipper had sent a kick towards Scotland’s line. French referee Thierry Alibert appeared to dismiss the challenge, waving at the writhing Briers to get up and pointing to his whistle. But as Scotland centre Gareth Morton broke clear and raced towards the line for what could well have been the winning try, touch judge Gary Tower came on to the field and Alibert stopped play. He belatedly awarded Wales a penalty and although Mark Lennon missed it, Scotland’s chance had gone.

“I’m bitterly disappointed,” said Scotland coach Steve McCormack. “The referee had a clear view of the incident and waved play on and a touch judge from 60 metres away comes on. It would’ve won us the game. I thought the game was very even – they scored off two kicks and an interception and Danny Brough scored the try of the game for us. But we lacked a little composure in the final third.”

Although Scotland had won both of their previous meetings, both in Scotland, they have a dismal record in Wales at other levels and some of the party were involved in the record 70-6 defeat at Brewery Field in June’s A team international. They must have feared a repeat as Wales took control from the off and looked like running away with the game just a quarter in. Briers instigated two almost identical tries in nine minutes. His eighth minute grubber from 30 metres out found winger Bryn Powell wide open on the right and he strolled in to open the scoring. When he did it again, Powell was so far ahead of defensive winger Andy McPhail that there were strong suspicions of offside. Briers missed both difficult kicks.

Scotland hit back when Morton broke clear and set up scrum-half Brough to go in under the sticks, Morton converting to close the gap to two points. That gave Scotland the boost they needed after a lacklustre opening 20 minutes and they could even have led at the interval if new skipper Dave McConnell had passed to Dougie Flockhart after a fine break.

Scotland started the second half brightly, Morton breaking a tackle and sending the excellent Wade Liddell - who had spent most of the first half making last ditch tackles - 50 metres but he failed to spot newly arrived sub Andy Brown on his right and the chance was lost. But Morton drew Scotland level seven minutes after the break with a penalty after Mike Wainwright had the ball stripped in a gang tackle.

When Adam Hughes put Wales ahead on 55 minutes it was virtually the first time they had got out of their half since the break. Hughes caught Brough’s chip and raced 90 metres to score, albeit aided by two team-mates fouling potential tacklers off the ball, unnoticed by referee Alibert and his touchjudges. Wales were buoyed by the score and seven minutes later Jordan James dummied his way in. Both kicks were missed by Lennon – would they prove costly?

Three minutes later Scotland had closed the gap to just two points. Brough pulled off a neat runaround play with Iain Marsh and backed himself to squeeze in at the left corner. Morton converted superbly from the touchline.

Wales finally booted a goal through Lennon on 71 minutes after Sinfield had prevented Briers playing the ball close to the Scotland line. Then came the touch judge’s intervention and to rub salt in Scotland’s wounds, Briers intercepted Wainwright’s pass to walk in for another Welsh try in the dying moments, taunting Fisher as he touched down. Lennon’s last kick sailed wide again but it did not matter.

Briers claimed Wales deserved to win by more. “We dominated the game and we would have won by 20 points if we’d kicked our goals. The spirit in the camp is second to none – you’d have thought we’d been together for years rather than just meeting up this week.” McCormack was also pleased with his team’s spirit: “Our effort from 1 to 17 was outstanding. We’re a proud bunch and we will take it on the chin and make sure we are all guns blazing against Ireland next Sunday.”

STATS
1 Damien Gibson (Halifax)
2 Bryn Powell (Featherstone)
3 Adam Hughes (Widnes)
4 Aled James (Sheffield)
5 Richard Johnson (Aberavon)
6 Lee Briers (Warrington ) ©
7 Mark Lennon (Manly)
8 David Mills (Widnes)
9 Ian Watson (Swinton)
10 Gareth Dean (Carcassonne)
11 Anthony Blackwood (Halifax)
12 Jordan James (Castleford)
13 Phil Joseph (Swinton)
Subs:
14 Karl Hocking (Bridgend)
15 Byron Smith (Castleford)
16 Jon Breakingbury (Valley)
17 Neil Davies (Aberavon)

Tries: Powell (9, 17), Hughes (55), James(62), Briers (80).
Goals: Briers 0/2, Lennon ¼.

SCOTLAND
1 Wade Liddell (Gateshead)
2 Jon Steel (Hull KR)
3 Dougie Flockhart (Scotland Students)
4 Gareth Morton (Hull KR)
5 Andy McPhail (Clyde)-Glasgow Hawks
6 David McConnell (Rochdale) ©
7 Danny Brough (Hull)
8 Oliver Wilkes (Leigh)
9 Andrew Henderson (Castleford)
10 Richard Fletcher (Castleford)
11 Iain Marsh (Batley)
12 Alex Szostak (Bradford)
13 Mike Wainwright (Warrington)
Subs:
14 Ben Fisher (Halifax)
15 Andy Brown (Fife)
16 Ian Sinfield (Swinton)
17 Nick Surtees (St Albans)

Tries: Brough (23, 65)
Goals: Morton 3/3

Referee: Thiery Alibert (France)
Attendance: 1167

This article was posted on 17-Oct-2005, 09:51 by Hugh Barrow.