Dragon Cup 2008
England were seen as the favourites to take out the series after easily accounting for other European sides in the EU Cup earlier in the year. However the Welsh squad had been training hard under new national coach Justin Blackwood and assistant coach Glyn Smith to give Wales the best possible chance to win.
The first test was played in Reading, and started off quite tentative with Wales leading at every change to hold off a strong finishing English side in the third quarter. However Wales was able to close down the match in the last term to defeat England by 30 points.
Great Britain representative and newly appointed captain of the Gwent Tigers David James was Wales' best player and judged best on ground. James smashed the packs with his drive and run through the midfield and laid many effective tackles. Cardiff Double Blues star Kim Swain showed his class with 4 goals and Tom Case was inspirational at full back in his first outing as Welsh captain clearing the ball on numerous occasions and giving Wales run out of defence.
Andrew Ruinoff was clearly England’s best player and was very close to best on ground. Ruinoff kept Welsh young gun Edward Doe quiet at full forward and took numerous contested marks in the backlines and ran out of defence with his pinpoint passing.
FINAL SCORE - CYMRU RED DRAGONS 11.13 (79) d. England Dragonslayers 7.7 (49)
The second test was supposed to see a rejuvenated England side step up and take it to the Red Dragons. The Dragonslayers needed to win by 30 points to retain the Dragon Cup (winner is determined by aggregate over the 2 tests) however it was Wales that had improved.
The first 2 quarters were reasonably tight, however Wales still had control of the game leading by 31 points at half time. In the third quarter Wales stamped its authority and slammed on 5 goals to England’s 2 which effectively meant the game was over as England now had the insurmountable task of having to score 76 points in the final term to win the series.
Welshman and British Bulldog Edward Doe was back in firing form kicking 3 goals in this match making him the highest goal scorer for the series (5 goals in total). David James continued to amaze the crowd and his team mates with the aggression at the ball, which probably helped him win the Dragon Cup medal for best player in the series.
For England they definitely missed Andrew Ruinoff in defence. However Luke Read and Mark Todd battled hard in the midfield and Martyn Hinchey performed well to win the England MVP for the series.
In the end Wales won the match by 62 points (92 points aggregate margin for the series), which is the highest ever margin between these two countries.
This result definitley means the Cymru Red Dragons have come a long way since the inception of the game in Wales only 18 months ago. It's going to be an exciting Dragon Cup in 2009!
FINAL SCORE – CYMRU RED DRAGONS 15.16 (106) d. England Dragonslayers 5.14 (44)
DRAGON CUP MEDALLIST: David James - Cymru Red Dragons
