South Wales Jets claimed a hard-fought win in their final friendly match of the season on Saturday, beating Midlands champions Telford Raiders 34-24 away from home.
It all looked plain sailing for the Jets to start with as they flew into a quick 16-0 lead in as many minutes. Jonny Reid was first over on eight minutes, quickly followed by Connor Lloyd and Marcus Webb, the latter two tries being converted by Shane Lee.
However our hosts were winning 18-16 at half-time thanks to tries from their player-coach Nathan Parker, Ethan Ferry and Caiden Barnett, all of which were converted.
After a stern talk from head coach Ben Flower, we quickly went back in the lead early in the second half thanks to a Ben Pinnock try that Lee improved.
Ten minutes later, Telford hit back thanks to their player coach to regain the lead, but when Reid got his second on 63 minutes, we weren’t going to lose.
It was tough and we knew it was going to be next try wins. Thankfully, it came to us, and it had to be skipper Dean Higgs who finished off a great passing move by scoring a hard-worked try with less than four minutes remaining. Lee converted as he did the last one to cement the victory.
Flower said: “I was very pleased with the boys on Saturday. We had a few debuts too, so it was nice to see them play.
“It was good to get the win and I saw glimpses of what we have been working on for the new Welsh Conference season.
“Having said that, I know we’ve lots to improve on, in both team and individually but we’ve time before we go to Aberavon for the first competitive match of the season.
“In all, it was a good performance and a good solid hit out against a very good side.”
Watch the match again on YouTube on the link below…