South Wales won their first game against Workington Town 22-20 at the Gnoll.

They fielded 10 Welsh internationals (including 7 Crusaders players) and will be tough to beat at this level.

Scorpions raced into a 20-0 lead after 45 mins but Town fought back to make it 20-20 before Scorpions kicked a penalty with 3 mins left to seal the win.

The crowd was given as 565.

Sounded good on radio. Plenty of Welsh lads and a win bodes well.
Mentioned on radio that they were collecting money for the flood fund.

How does a crowd of 565 compare to other matches in that division? I'm not too well versed on average attendances for the lower leagues. Would you class that as a good gate, you know like relatively speaking?

good stuff!
Can't be remotely match fit

The 7 players they had from Crusaders certainly helped their cause though.

How did the local trialists go?

I'm not aware they had any trialists.

Think he means the lads they picked up from the trials

Well done!!!! Slightly disapointing crowd I think, but maybe the cold had a say? That said, its 565 more than would have watched RL in South Wales today without them!!

The only names I wasn't familiar with in their team were Andrew Gay, Shaun Owens, Craig Richards, Steve Parry and Neil Dallimore.

The rest of the team was Jordan James, Anthony Blackwood, Ben Flower, Loz Wildbore, Aled James, Lloyd White, Gil Dudson, Ashley Bateman, Lee Williams, Lewis Mills, Christian Roets and Barrie Phillips - 7 of whom were in the Welsh team that won the Euro Nations final. That's a strong squad for this level.

Most of their squad is Welsh qualified isn't it? I read somewhere it was all bar one I think.

Yes I think only Loz Wildbore isn't qualified for Wales.

Thought there were a few more than 565 there, there was a decent enough atmosphere towards the end of the match and everything was positive which was good. Really don't understand why the Crusaders are going to be playing at that ground though, it's decent for the lower leagues but nowhere near SL standard and will drag the average gate right down, hopefully that will be the final part of the legacy of poor management from the previous regime. Ideally the Bradford game would be moved back North, but I think they have signed a contract so this is unlikely.

In terms of the game, Scorpions were better than the scoreline suggests, they went to 20-0 up with ease and then tried their best to lose. The referee didn't help, in the second half he seemed blow a penalty every time the Workington players appealed. It's difficult to tell how strong teams are at this stage, but the Scorpions looked solid enough and I reckon they should be on for a play-off finish, with a possible promotion push if they can keep the dual-registered Crusaders players for most of the year.