TORFAEN Tigers may have had their hearts broken by Aberavon Fighting Irish, but hooker Jason Hill was left a broken man in more ways than one.

Hill was stretched off in the Welsh Conference play-off semi-final after suffering a broken ankle and ligament damage.

Tigers coach Kevin Weaver said he was bitterly disappointed by the defeat, but the main concern was for Hill.

He said: "I am gutted for Jason. He was right in the running for the hooker's role for the Wales against England grand slam decider next month.

"It was a really bad one and his season is all but over now."

The match itself was a tough one for Weaver to swallow, but he said that the side can look back with pride over their season's work.

He said: "I am bitterly disappointed not to have won, but we can be happy with the way we have taken the club forward again this season.

"I spoke about discipline before the match and that is what has cost us. We outscored them on tries, but they stung us on the penalties.

"We played too much in our own half and we didn't have enough composure in theirs.

"The squad are due a big thank you for taking us another small step forward and creating a great base to build on next year.

"Through the winter I will be thinking about bringing in two or three committed rugby league players, but we don't need to do much.

"We came very close this year and will progress again next year.

"We ran Bridgend close twice and Aberavon never beat us by more than one score.

"We have a squad mainly made up of third division players whereas Aberavon had about 10 Premier League players, but we completed.

He added: "Hopefully we can learn the lessons from this campaign and come back stronger.

"I think we will be even better next year and with Newport going from strength to strength as well it bodes well for the Gwent clubs in rugby league."