National Youth Shield Competition – Round of 16

 

Llangwm Youth tumble out of National Shield

 

Llangwm 15 - Tumble 39

 
Venue: Pill Parks, Llangwm
Referee: Kevin Evans (Llechryd)

Tumble Youth booked their place in the National Shield quarter-finals after overcoming Llangwm in an entertaining and eventful encounter. Following a strong start, Llangwm found themselves behind at half-time but came back strongly only to see Tumble pull away in the final quarter to secure a deserved victory.
 

Fast start from the Wasps

 
Llangwm certainly came out of the blocks showing real intent from the first whistle, forcing Tumble deep into their own territory. A Tumble error gave Llangwm good field position and from the ensuing lineout Oscar Willington darted across the gain line and fed centre Liam Miller who showed good balance to dive over for a try.
This early setback stung Tumble into action and quick possession on halfway saw the impressive Osian Morgan pick out centre Aled King with a neat flat pass, King hauled down only metres short but Morgan took the return pass to score at the posts. No.10 Morgan converted his own try as part of a personal haul of 19-points in an assured performance where he marshalled his backline well and kicked cleverly throughout.
 

Great endeavour from both teams

 
There was no further scoring for 15 minutes as the teams sparred with each other, both creating good positions and opportunities but defences holding firm. No.8 Llew Rees posed a genuine threat as a tireless ball-carrier constantly breaking the gain line, ably supported by flanker Morgan Pugh who put in an impressive shift.

For Llangwm there was no shortage of endeavour as skipper Kieran Sinclair and Will Morgan carried well, Miller and Joe Johns posed a threat from their centre berths and the back three of Carter O’Leary-Ellis, Sonny Zipperlen and in particular Kieran Lewis covered Tumble attacks really well.
 

Tumble pull away before half-time

 
On the 20-minute mark Tumble extended their lead with a converted try. Following a series of strong forward carries King again exploited a gap in the Llangwm defence to race over from 25 metres, just reward for an excellent performance. Llangwm hit straight back though as Miller forced a penalty 25 metres out, Willington slotting the kick to narrow the Tumble lead to 14 – 8.

Tumble continued to press with Morgan adding a successful penalty kick and despite dogged defence they secured a third try on the stroke of half-time to lead 22 - 8. A loose kick out of defence saw Tumble spread the ball with real pace to outstrip the defence with full-back Steffan Bennett, grandson of the Llanelli and Wales legend Phil Bennett, gleefully taking the scoring pass and diving over wide out.
 

Llangwm show real resolve

 
The half-time message from the coaches clearly fired up the Llangwm players as they came out all guns blazing and quickly grabbed a foothold back in the game. Strong carries by the forwards set up good field position and from there it was once again the combination of Willington and Miller who made the breakthrough. Willington made the initial break with Miller taking the pass to burst through two tackles and grab the touchdown. With the Tumble lead cut to 22 – 15 it was anybody’s game.

It was Tumble though following a frantic 15-minute period of rugby where the advantage ebbed and flowed who grabbed the crucial next score. Centre Harvey Griffiths put in a deft kick deep into Llangwm territory. The covering Willington regained possession and Llangwm set up their exit only to see the clearance kick strike a Llangwm player in the in-goal area with Quinn Murphy the quickest to react, the prop forward diving on the ball to secure the try and extend his team’s lead to 29 – 15.
 

Tempers boil over to mar an excellent game

 
The game was far from won at this point and it was of no surprise in such a full-blooded encounter that passion and tempers began to flare. A couple of minor fracas came to nothing as excellent referee Kevin Evans maintained tight control. On 25 minutes though a large brawl ensued. Tumble had broken out of defence with Josh Palin superbly regathering a high kick and feeding Bennett who showed a good turn of speed along the bottom touchline before chipping ahead.

Bennett clearly felt he had been obstructed and remonstrated with the Llangwm defender who clearly took umbrage with a two-man tussle ensuing. What followed saw numerous players abandon their part in the ongoing play and instead opting to run in and join the tussle, which quickly developed into a full-on brawl. A long stoppage followed as referee Evans sought to restore order. A number of players from both teams could count themselves lucky to remain on the field. But a referee can only penalise what he sees and it was try-scorer Murphy who saw red and had to leave the field.
 

Tumble finish strongly to secure victory

 
Following the restart and despite being down to 14 players, Tumble showed good control to close the game out. With less than 10 minutes to go Morgan notched a further penalty kick to put the result beyond doubt and shortly afterwards second row Rhys Lewis put the icing on the Tumble cake. Lewis won lineout ball on the Llangwm 22-metre line and as his pack feigned a driving maul Lewis peeled away and galloped over, Morgan converting to seal the win.

Llangwm will reflect on a lack of discipline seeing them concede a very high penalty count as well as a failure to convert several good attacking positions into points. However, an expansive and adventurous Tumble side were good value for their victory playing some very attractive rugby and now deservedly await the quarter-final draw as they seek the prize of a final spot at the Principality Stadium.
 
Llangwm: Isaac Hitchings, Seb Franklin, Kieran Sinclair (Captain), Tom Jenkins, Dylan Rowles, Finn Phillips, Morgan Doncaster, Will Morgan, Alfie Elrick, Oscar Willington, Kieran Lewis, Joe Johns, Liam Miller, Sonny Zipperlen, Carter O’Leary-Ellis. Replacements: Ben Hawkridge-Jones, Seth Hughes, George Nichols, Tom Rickwood, Dylan O’Loughlin, Riley Thomas, Iestyn Mason, Jack Phillips, Josh Owen, Dean Thorpe.
 
Tumble: Quinn Murphy, Jack Strelly, Iago Richards, Rhys Lewis, Owain Page, Morgan Pugh, Cai Rees-Jones, Llew Rees, Jack Morris (Captain), Osian Morgan, Josh Palin, Harvey Griffiths, Aled King, Jack Ifan-Owens, Steffan Bennett.  Replacements: Iestyn Maddocks, Brian Demirpoat, Cai Mainwaring, Morgan McKee, Griff Williams.
 



 

National Youth Plate Competition:

 

Young Blues play superbly in North Wales

 

Wrexham Youth 7 - Haverfordwest Youth 52

 
Haverfordwest made the immensely long journey to North Wales to carry the Pembrokeshire Flag in real style as they limited the host club to a single try, whilst scoring eight tries of their own, playing the brand of rugby that has seen them with a 100% record in their league games her to sit proudly atop the table as reward.
 
Coaches Steve Parry and Andrew Thicker have encouraged their squad to play an attacking brand of rugby, built on their powerful pack and backs who are capable of running the ball from anywhere on the field – and the win was even more sensational because a number of their squad had played for the county under 16s the previous night in their last Dewar Shield-related game.
 
Forwards Alfie Thomas and Zac Shaw’s graft up front was rewarded as they grabbed a try brace apiece, with the others coming from Alfie Kehoe, Max Finn, Kai Robinson and Logun Young.
 
Rio Phillips landed five conversions and generally called the shots well from his No 10 berth, ending up as the Wrexham players’ choice as man of the match, with Max Fenn selected by Steve Parry from a coaches’ viewpoint.  Young adding the other two-pointer to nicely round off a great squad effort that sees The Young Blues into the last eight – hopefully with a home draw as reward for all this super-costly travel that the WRU needs to look into!




 

Crymych Youth battle their way into the last eight

 

Crymych Youth 20 - Valley Ravens 15

 
A fantastic last-gasp try saw Crymych deservedly claim their place in the quarter-finals after withstanding some very physical stuff from an equally determined opposing team from the Ogmore Vale and Pontycymmer clubs which had red cards,  and several yellow cards, some of them shown in a late kerfuffle with the referee.
 
The Ravens had some very useful players and were in contention from start to finish – indeed, they were ahead until those last few moments when Crymych put together a concerted move orchestrated by Daf Bryan and  Osian Evans which saw winger Ifan Wyn Jones speeding through for the touchdown and a conversion by Evans.
 
The earlier Crymych try came from back rower Llyr Mathias, who had played for Pembs Schools Under 16s in their win over Rhymney Valley School, which was also converted by Evans alongside two penalties – and the Crymych Youth were winners by a whisker but still involved in the quarter final draw!
 
 
 

National WRU Youth Bowl Competition:

 

Mid Walians too strong for The Seagulls

 

Aberystwyth 27 - Fishguard& Goodwick 12

 
The match between Aberystwyth and Fishguard & Goodwick was a ‘double header’ in the sense that the winner took the league points and made progress to the quarter-finals of the National Bowl competition.
 
It was a sporting gesture by Seagulls;’ coach Randall Evans, which meant at least they didn’t have to face another very expensive bus trip north – but although they battled hard from start to finish, they were always going to struggle a little against an Aber side which is traditionally very strong at home and that was certainly the case for this important match as reward for their excellent coaching set-up there.
 
The Young Fishguard team had good tries by Wil Thomas and Jack Richards, one of them converted by Will Robinson, but they had other half chances where the final pass didn’t quite go to hand or over-eagerness meant the wrong options were taken.
 
Aber ran in excellent tries from Toby Wilcoxson, Sean Spollen, Cerith Williams, Kier Creasey and Steffan Jones, who also landed one conversion and they now hope for another home draw because they will take some stopping with that advantage!