Wales Dragonhearts, the representative side of the community game in Wales, broke all records on the weekend in their quickfire tour of Poland.
Facing a Polish outfit, who have won 50 percent of their senior men’s international matches since their inception in 2018, the Dragonhearts ran riot in game one, played on Saturday evening, winning 124-0.
This scoreline eclipsed the previous record in any Wales Rugby League international, one that was only two years ago, when Wales beat Scotland 116-6 in a Wheelchair Celtic Cup win in Wrexham. Dragonhearts’ previous record was a 70-8 victory against Scotland in Bridgend in 2005, whilst the other scoreline beaten was the previous non-Wheelchair record score, a 90-0 traducing of Ukraine Under 19s in 2018 in Belgrade. The 23 tries scored was also a record for a Welsh international at any level.
On Saturday at Stadion Polonia Andrzejów, Lodz, Wales were completely in control for the full 80 minutes. Kurtis Haile went over after just one minute to start it all off. He ended up with four tries in the game.
By half-time it was 56-0, not a record half-time score for Wales, there were two 70-0 half-time scores for Wales Wheelchair in the past, but the Dragonhearts’ tally of 68 points after the break was a second half international record for a Wales side.
Chris Harris led the way with 20 points from a try and eight goals, while Josh O’Connell contributed a try and seven goals. There was a hat-trick for Aidyn Jones, whilst Brad Llewellyn, Alfie Matthias and Llewellyn Hawkes bagged a brace apiece. Nathan Tucker also chipped in with a try and a conversion.
Further tries were scored Ryan Price-Jones, Chris Jones, Jonny Rae, Ben Jackson, Jake Spedding, Jack Griffiths and Brandon Lamb.
Then on Sunday afternoon at MOSIR Tęcza, Lodz, with both sides making seven changes to their line-ups, the teams went to battle again with Wales running out 108-8 winners.
The Dragonhearts were 16-0 up on nine minutes when Poland got themselves on the board, with Maciej Myszkowski deciding to kick a penalty, just so they would have something to show for their efforts.
However they need not have worried as on 23 minutes, when the score was 20-2, Szymon Malicki got over the line for Poland with Myszkowski adding the goal.
But apart from those brief moments, it was again all Wales, who went into half-time 56-8 up.
Rae, who scored a try in the first game, got a hat-trick in this game, and there were two tries each for Jacob Purcell, Lewis Francis, Spedding, Daniel Coombes, Lamb and Alan Pope.
Hawkes, Ben O’Connell, Griffiths, Lloyd Allen, Chris Jones, Haile and Lloyd Pritchard scored once each. Ben O’Connell landed seven goals, Spedding two and Josh O’Connell one. A total of 22 tries were scored in this game.
Head coach Simon Reynolds said: “It’s been a fantastic tour, every player has represented their families, clubs, towns and themselves with pride and we as a group have made memories along the way.
“We’ve had an excellent couple of weeks, which started out when we beat Germany 56-12 at Aberavon Harlequins. We capped six new players in that game and four on Saturday in Poland. Congratulations to Shane Lee for winning his 11th cap, putting him in joint third place in the Dragonhearts cap list.
“Finally, we’d like to thank Poland for hosting us and we hope to welcome them to Wales in the future.”
Wales Dragonhearts tour squad: Daniel Coombs (Army Rugby League), Lloyd Allen, Lewis Francis, Tyler Hopkins, Ben Jackson, Keiron John, Alan Pope (all Aberavon Fighting Irish), Llewellyn Hawkes, Lloyd Pritchard (both Bridgend Blue Bulls), Brandon Lamb (Bristol All Golds), Ryan Price-Jones (Clock Face Miners), Raymond Lear (Conwy Celts), Aidyn Jones (Flintshire Falcons), Ben O’Connell, Josh O’Connell (both Pilkington Recs), Jack Griffiths (Rhondda Outlaws), Chris Harris, Shane Lee, Jacob Purcell (all South Wales Jets), Chris Jones, Alfie Matthias, Jonny Rae (all Thatto Heath Crusaders), Brad Llewellyn (Thornhill Trojans), Kurtis Haile, Nathan Tucker (both Torfaen Tigers), Jake Spedding (Ulverston).
