By Nigel Francis
Jade Newman and Mared Evans were the stars of the show as Llandaff North defeated a spirited and committed Gwynerfed 69-5 in the Women’s Super Cup. Set in the heart of the Brecon Beacons with the sun beating down it was certainly a picturesque backdrop for an open, running game of rugby.
It took just three minutes for Premiership side North to unlock the Championship sides’ defence. Newman scoring the first of her five tries following a flowing backs move in the home sides’ 22. Five minutes later Evans supported a line break from centre Elin Huxtable to exploit an overlap on the right hand side. Huxtable again played creator for Newman’s second score drawing in two defenders to create space for a simple run in for her centre partner. Newman completed her hat trick inside twenty minutes as she took a strong line through the Gwynerfed rear-guard to touch down under the sticks. Evans, not to be outdone, ghosted through the narrowest of gaps before showing her acceleration to cross moments later. A strong run from Becky Newton saw her shrug off three would be tacklers to sprint from one 22 to the other.
With only the full back to beat the captain unselfishly offloaded to Amberley Ruck, who was working hard in support, for the scrum half to outpace the cover to the corner. Evans had the final say of the half as she again jinxed her way through the defence to complete her hat trick on the stroke of half time for North to turn around 43-0 up.
The second half started in similar fashion as Gwynerfed were penalised straight from the kick off; quick reactions from Ruck saw her make a quick ten metres before popping off to Nia Jones to crash over to the left of the posts. The game then descended into a bit of an arm wrestle as Gwynerfed redoubled their efforts and both sides were guilty of giving away a number of needless penalties. Newman was the player to break the deadlock with another strong break down the middle of the pitch to touch down under the posts. To their credit the home side never stopped playing rugby and were finally rewarded when Lily Snape went on a barnstorming run following a penalty to take a couple of would be defenders with her over the line. Newman completed a very satisfactory afternoon with her fifth try five minutes from time, which left just enough time for Evans to score her fourth try and add her eighth conversion to finish with a personal tally of 36 points and a comfortable 69-5 victory for the visitors.
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