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Your support makes all the difference.Stephen Jones kicked 21 points to maintain Llanelli's challenge in Pool Five of the Heineken Cup yesterday. The Wales fly-half, playing out of position at inside-centre so that Alex Lawson could have a long-overdue run-out, landed five penalties and three conversions as the Scarlets overwhelmed Roma 46-0 at Stradey Park.
Stephen Jones kicked 21 points to maintain Llanelli's challenge in Pool Five of the Heineken Cup yesterday. The Wales fly-half, playing out of position at inside-centre so that Alex Lawson could have a long-overdue run-out, landed five penalties and three conversions as the Scarlets overwhelmed Roma 46-0 at Stradey Park.
The Wales wing Dafydd James, partnering Jones at centre, turned in a blistering display which featured a try in each half. The flanker Mike Buckingham, lock Chris Wyatt and wing Mark Jones also went over as Llanelli clocked up 32 points after the interval to record their biggest win in the competition.
Welsh teams in the European Shield were unable to emulate their compatriots' four Heineken Cup wins out of four so far this weekend. Caerphilly were especially disappointed with their 36-36 draw against their visitors Auch in Pool Four after leading 29-14 with just 20 minutes to go. And Cross Keys also surrendered an early advantage to go down 20-10 at home to the Pool One leaders Treviso.
In contrast, English sides produced a series of impressive results in the Shield to confound the abject displays of their more vaunted colleagues in the Cup.
London Irish powered to the top of Pool Six with a 35-8 thrashing of Brive in the Madejski Stadium - a result which would in effect have sealed the Exiles' quarter-final place had they not been docked two points for fielding an ineligible player in their opening game. Rotherham continued to make a mockery of their Premiership form with their third win out of three in Pool Three - a hard-fought 16-9 success over visitors Bridgend whose bright start to the season is beginning to fizzle out. Bristol kept alive their hopes of qualifying for the knock-out stages with an emphatic 61-14 victory over Parma in Pool Seven and Harlequins moved to the top of Pool Five with their third consecutive win, seeing off Dax 25-3 at the Stoop.
There were no surprises in the third round of the Tetley's Bitter Cup, though the clashes between National League One sides saw newly promoted Otley and Birmingham/Solihull embarrass Henley and Orrell while the runaway leaders Worcester proved too strong for Moseley. Not to be outdone, Leeds romped home 100-0 in their tie with Morley of National Division Three North.
Hawick stayed clear of Boroughmuir in the BT Scotland Premiership by defeating Gala 41-10, but there was a change of leadership in the Welsh National League First Division when Pontypool lost 31-22 at Bonymaen to facilitate Newbridge, who beat Tondu 17-13.
Meanwhile, Jonah Lomu showed he has lost none of his powers with two tries as Wellington edged Canterbury 34-29 in Christchurch to lift New Zealand's provincial title.
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