Long wait at an end for South Wales Warriors

By Twm Owen

A six week wait between fixtures will come to an end for the South Wales Warriors this weekend when they travel to Worcester. 

The Warriors were impressive in scoring seven touchdowns in a 50-0 home victory over the Jurassic Coast Raptors in their last game, back in May, and will be aiming to put the Worcestershire Black Knights to the sword on Sunday (2.30pm). 

The Knights, however, will also be in a confident mood after their 50 – 6 home victory over the Cornish Sharks last Sunday.  

BAFA Division Two West strugglers the Sharks are battling on with a depleted squad and had been forced to re-arrange their May visit to South Wales for later in June, which along with the drawn out fixture list, has contributed to the Warriors’ having only played two games so far this season. 

The Warriors have spent more Sundays on the training ground than in competitive action since they started their season with a hard-fought 8-6 victory at league newcomers the Somerset Wyverns in early April. 

The home victory over the Dorset-based Raptors was achieved against a side that travelled a long distance with a small squad but demonstrated the advantage the Warriors enjoy over many of their division rivals with a large squad containing a healthy number of enthusiastic rookies. 

On Sunday the Warriors will hope their experienced starters, hardened from the club’s previous seasons playing at higher levels of the British game, will give them the edge over the Knights who defeated the Raptors 32-12 in Worcester before recording a 34-6 victory in Somerset. 

Worcestershire, who won just once last term, appear to be finding their feet in their second season in the league and their only loss this term was a close fought 15-7 defeat to the undefeated Torbay Trojans.

Sunday’s fixture in Worcester is also the first in a run of games on four consecutive weekends for the Warriors. The Welshmen play the Sharks in their re-arranged fixture at Llanharan next week, June 24, before hosting the return fixture against the Black Knights and then travelling to Torbay.