BEARS MAUL WARRIORS IN CLS
Photo by Jef Bale of the Bears in action in Gloucester
BEARS MAUL WARRIORS IN CLs
Gloucester Warriors 10 Coventry Bears Reserves 56
Conference League South match, Saturday March 28th, Gloucester.
Coventry Bears Reserves got their season off to a good start after last weeks close defeat to Sheffield Hallam Eagles 24-12 with a big win away at Gloucester Warriors. The Warriors were coming off the back of a win versus Oxford Cavaliers but were shell shocked in the first 20 minutes as the Bears were to powerful.
The Warriors made an error on their first possession and Jamal Hunte cantered to the posts for the opening score. Andy Winfield kicked the first of his six goals for the day with less than a minute on the clock.
Twenty minutes later, the Warriors were 22-0 down as the Bears scored seemingly at will. The visitors coupled aggressive running with sharp support play and the Warriors missed tackle after tackle.
Eddie Medforth and Italian international Gioele Celerino crossed and when Jake Pratley went over for the Bears’ fourth try, they were travelling at a point a minute.
Despite this, the Warriors fashioned chances as Yannic Parker was held up over the line before Brad Kislingbury had a try disallowed for a knock on.
After adding another try through Medforth, the Bears had a mad five minutes with Celerino being spoken to by the referee twice in short order for high tackles.
With a flurry of penalties in their favour, the Warriors managed to mount some pressure of their own and Harry Kidd went over out wide. A few minutes later, Dale Cooper was adjudged to have got the vital touch to Liam Rice-Wilson’s kick through, the scrum half adding the goal to make the score 10-28.
That was as good as it got for the Warriors as their toehold in the match was quickly lost.
The Bears finished the half with a try from Reece Chapman Carry and carried on in the same vein during the second period. Former All Gold Tawanda Chipadza, Hunte and a quickfire brace from Alex Calvert took them to the half century, Gavin Grant finishing the scoring with the Bears’ 11th try with four minutes left.
The Warriors had their opportunities and forced the Bears to defend their tryline. However their best chance came and went when Rice-Wilson’s kick to the corner was knocked back into the ingoal but Ollie Cooper just couldn’t gather the ball to touch it down.
WARRIORS: Josh Williams; Yannic Parker, Brad Kislingbury, Dale Cooper, Ian Clark; Connor Jones, Liam Rice-Wilson, Brett Scriven, Luke Stephens, Jake Thompson; Ollie Cooper (Capt), Bradley Mais; Harry Kidd. INTERCHANGE: Doug Simpson, Nathan Rainer, Hector Silva, Richard James, Dean Banks.
Scorers:
Tries; Harry Kidd (26), Dale Cooper (32)
Goals; Liam Rice-Wilson 1 from 2.
BEARS: Andy Winfield; Reece Chapman Carry, Eddie Medforth, Liam Scott, Tawanda Chipadza; Ben West, Jake Pratley; James Geurtiens, Dylan Bale, Alex Beddows; Gioele Celerino, Gavin Grant; Jamal Hunte. INTERCHANGE: Alex Brown, Matthew Chinn, Alex Calvert, Tarek Mursal, Connor Slater, Jason Bass.
Scorers:
Tries; Jamal Hunte (1, 61), Eddie Medforth (3,22), Gioele Celerino (14), Jake Pratley (17), Reece Chapman Carry (38), Tawanda Chipadza (51), Alex Calvert (64, 67), Gavin Grant (76),
Goals; Andy Winfield 6 from 11.
Referee: Tom Mather (London RLRS)
Conference League South Results – Round 2
Saturday 28 March
Gloucestershire Warriors 10-56 Coventry Bears A
Nottingham Outlaws 16-28 Sheffield Hallam Eagles
Valley Cougars 28-0 Leicester Storm
Results, fixtures, tables and stats are available on the Conference League South website: http://www.conferenceleaguesouth.co.uk/