Greenhill win Senior Welsh Schools’ Rugby title

Greenhill School, Tenby, are the proud winners of the Welsh Schools’ Senior Rugby title after beating off the strong challenge of Ysgol Rhydywaun, of Hirwaun, near Aberdare, in a hard-fought final.
The stage for a Welsh final was perfectly set at the classic first-class ground of Ebbw Vale, in blazing sunshine with a bumper following from Tenby in great voice. Both teams in the final had won their respective leagues, scoring many tries in the process and losing on only two occasions over the season.

Good start for Tenby

The form of both teams was unquestionably good and with two current Welsh under eighteen internationals at outside half and flanker, it was thought that Ysgol Rhydawaun might have a slight edge. But Greenhill kicked off and kept Rhydawaun in their half for most of the first twenty minutes, some scything runs through the midfield from Ben James, Chris Heesom and Toby Smith at outside half, who also kicked with accuracy, put Rhydawaun under some immense pressure.
The initial breaks were not capitalised upon, however, due to some last gasp heroics in defence and a lack of precision in the final pass, but Toby Smith eventually opened the scoring with an easily slotted penalty.

Vital scores

The next score was soon to follow with Daryll Mansbridge showing speed and agility to gather a kick through and score a well developed try in the corner from thirty metres out. Greenhill’s confidence grew as Rhydawaun continued to feel the pressure, and it was Ashley Bonser who burst over from five metres after multi-phase rugby close to the line, controlled by Michael Jones, the ever- present force at number eight, so the score stood at 13 – 0.
Greenhill then came under some pressure of their own with Rhydawaun benefiting from some broken play and indiscipline, putting their first points on the board with a penalty.

Sam saves the day

Rhydawaun looked like scoring a try after the strong running of their full back in particular, but the Greenhill defence stood strong and a game-changing moment came minutes before half time, when Rhydawaun looked destined to score but for the devastating tackling of hooker Sam Harts, who forced the defender over the corner flag.
Greenhill had a less than comfortable lead at the break, but again the boot of Toby Smith made Rhydawaun pay for their indiscretion with another three points.

Solid defence

The Rhydawaun team pressed hard to get back into the game and their backline made some good ground only for the Greenhill defence to upset the balance. It was clear with fifteen minutes to go that Greenhill were happy to defend their lead and it was some cool kicking out of hand by Jack Guerreiro, coupled with some big hitting from Michael Jones and Dominic Landragin that kept Rhydawaun away from the tries they needed, getting only a penalty for their efforts.
The final whistle was met with a huge cheer from the Greenhill students, parents and players themselves as they were worthy winners by ten points with the man of the match trophy collected by the outstanding Toby Smith before team captain Michael Jones lifted the Welsh Schools Bowl title, which was just reward for the tremendous efforts of the squad this year.

Greenhill School Squad:
Chris Heesom, Toby Smith, Jack Guerreiro, Dan Thomas, James Lewis, Pat Elliott, Steffan Davies, Daryll Mansbridge, Ben James, Alex Harley, Jon Miller, Tom Harland, Nino Rodgers, Michael Jones, Lewis Davies, Dan Gosnold, Dominic Landragin, Sam Harts, Eddy Duffy, Joel Read, Sam Ferguson, Dan Mc Dermott, Connor Keohane, Ashley Bonser.

Pembrokeshiresport.co.uk says a huge well done to the Greenhill School team and coaches – what a wonderful achievement!