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Charvis trio lifts Swansea

Wales flanker Colin Charvis grabbed a hat-trick of tries as Swansea won a convincing 42-22 victory over Glasgow Caledonians in Perth.

The win moved Swansea up to second place in the Welsh-Scottish League table, level on 18 points with leaders Bridgend, Newport and Cardiff.

Both sides had early opportunities, Tommy Hayes for Caledonians and Arwel Thomas for Swansea both missing penalties, but the Reds opened the scoring when Scotland wing Jon Steel latched onto Gordon Simpson's chip to the corner.

Hayes converted the try and with the ball being thrown around the McDiarmid Park field, more tries looked likely.

Ireland training squad call-up Shaun Payne returned a kick by Reds full-back Alan Bulloch with a run of fully 60 metres for Swansea's opener before Charvis grabbed the first of his tries.

Charvis's second was a controversial effort, but Swansea continued to dominate territorially and ended the half 22-7 ahead with a dropped goal by Thomas to add to his two conversions.

The Reds stepped up the pace in the second half but could find no way through the Swansea defence and could manage only a penalty by Hayes.

A Thomas penalty restored the 15-point margin as the game entered the final quarter but two tries in two minutes by Glasgow's Hayes and Jon Stuart put the Reds right back in it.

Swansea came on strong, however, and Charvis's third try was converted by Thomas 10 minutes from the end before a further score by Matthew Robinson in injury-time finished off the Reds.