IT'S WHITE HOT LEE!

Swansea 59

Ebbw Vale 12

Superb Swansea swept aside Ebbw Vale in a nine try romp at St Helens to keep their title aspirations on course.

The Gwent side, depleted through injuries, simply had no answer to the fluent running style of their rampant hosts.

With better Swansea finishing it could have been even more embarrassing for the outclassed visitors.

These sides will meet again next week in the Swalec Cup semi- final and this will be a tremendous morale booster for Swansea.

Survival

And Vale will be anxiously looking over their shoulders as Dunvant continue to make a late rally for First Division survival.

What a wonderful afternoon it turned out to be for Swansea's replacement centre Lee Davies.

Coming on after half an hour for the injured Luc Evans, Davies revelled in the free-flowing play to secure four touchdowns.

The crowd sensed that they were in for a feast of running rugby as early as the second minute with centre Mark Taylor slicing through a feeble Vale defence.

And despite immediately hitting back with a neat Graham Spence try the visitors saw their line crossed on three further occasions before half- time.

A try for flanker Dean Thomas, a penalty try for persistent off- side and Lee Davies' first try gave Swansea a 28-7 interval advantage.

Sean Marshall hit back with a simple wing try to give Ebbw Vale hopes of a revival, but 15 minutes into the second-half the floodgates opened as Swansea ran riot.

The brilliant Davies led the way with three tries in ten minutes and replacement wing Warren Leach joined the spree.

But the biggest cheer was reserved for man-of-the-match lock Steve Moore who found himself in splendid isolation on the left-wing with eight minutes remaining.

He raced over the line to complete an afternoon of total joy for the home supporters.

It was fitting too that fly-half Aled Williams should convert from the touchline. It gave him his seventh conversion of the match and he had kicked superbly throughout the afternoon.

Copyright 1997 MGN LTD
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.