The Wales Dragonhearts, formerly known as Wales A got there biggest ever victory over the England Lionhearts at the Brewery Field last Saturday with an empathic 42-4 victory with Bridgend Blue Bulls players starring.

Ten of the 18 man squad selected were Blue Bulls with 38 of the 42 points scored coming from players at the Porthcawl based club giving the team the perfect start in this years Home Nations Campaign.
In the fifth minute Grant Epton, who returned to the Blue Bulls this summer after two seasons with the Crusaders created an early try for his Bridgend and Wales teammate Jamie Murphy which Murphy also converted for a 6-0 lead. But the English hit straight back when stand off Paul Hersnip put in a great kick which Ethan Langhorn pounced on for an unconverted score.

Matthew Hutchings thought he had claimed a second Wales try moments later but the final pass from Epton was adjudged to have gone forward then Karl Davies was held up just a metre short denying the South Wales Police Union hooker a debut Dragonhearts try.

But Wales didn't have to wait long when on 25 minutes Hutchings intercepted what would have been a scoring England pass and showed great speed to race 70 metres to the line, and Murphy again converted for a 12-4 lead.

Murphy then claimed scored his second and Wales third when on the final tackle he chipped over the heads of the defending England players and won the race to the ball to score under the posts and he kicked the goal to make it 18-4.

Just before the break Murphy created another putting in a great cross field kick for another of his Blue Bulls teammates Karl Hocking to score and the 19 year old Murphy converted again to make it 24-4 at the break.

England had chances to hit back early in the second half but failed to take the opportunities and they were punished when replacement hooker Craig Fox did what he does best and burrowed his way under two would-be tacklers to claim Wales fifth try of the game.

Good work from Christiaan Roets and Gareth Howells then resulted in the only non-Blue Bulls try of the game when Cougars centre Adrian Owen slid over under the posts before a great break and pass from Karl Davies sent Matthew Hutchings over for his second try of the game to make the final score 42-4 to the Welshmen.

For Wales Jamie Murphy was outstanding and named MOTM after his 22 point haul while there were great Dragonheart debuts for youngsters Shaun Owens and Karl Davies. Hutchings and Epton also looked dangerous throughout while Craig Fox's sniping runs caused havoc for the English defence.

In the forwards the Lionhearts found it almost impossible to tackle the big hard running Christiaan Roets while Gareth Howells shone in what was only his third every game of Rugby League after making just two appearances for the Blue Bulls. Pontycymer boy Daniel Smith also had a great game and rarely missed a tackle.

After the game Wales Lionhearts coach Mike Healey said

“I’m really pleased at how well the lads played today, we got one or two early tries which settled us down a bit and our gameplan was perfect after that. It was an outstanding performance. There’s a lot of things today that we can work on as we have two tough games coming up so I think there’s a good few more tries left in us yet. Scotland will be a tough game, I’ve played against them a couple of times myself and they always give us a good game. Ireland will be a different story as we’re the away team this year but hopefully we’ll be there the night before where we’ll have a captain’s run and I’m certain we’ll give a good account of ourselves. But today has been the perfect start for us, it was a joy to watch.”

"to see so many local lads playing so well and getting the recognition they deserve is fantastic and Im really proud of the ten Blue Bulls who helped Wales beat the English. Most of the lads selected play for low level Union teams and probably never even dreamed of representing Wales at any level but they showed they are good enough and there a few who could go a long way in the 13 man game"