A mixture of youth and junior reports and a picture album from the Under-10 Festival at Welshpool
Caernarfon U12 14 v Colwyn Bay U12 7
Bay hopes dashed in Thrilling Encounter
Seb Marshall who was in the thick of the action led his team from the front in an exciting, competitive game against Caernarfon.
Both teams were eager to gain the win having had two close fixtures earlier in the season, which resulted in some robust exchanges in the forwards with Conner Williams and Joe Fisher driving the ball hard, ably supported by the rest of the pack. There was an improvement in the driving work at the rucks and mauls with Robbie Wilks, Conner Hogan, Sam Holt, and Nicholas Young getting low and driving static play forward which won a number of scrums for the Bay much to Joe Kilpatrick’s delight.
The Bay found it hard to follow the game plan of spreading the ball wide to take advantage of the pace of the backs with uncharacteristic handling errors creating opportunities for Caernarfon who capitalised leading up to half time from a fumble on our own line.
The Bay took the game back strongly to Caernarfon with good driving play which resulted in Joe Fisher crashing over under the posts with a well worked try which was converted by Connor Williams.
The second half was a great example of committed rugby which brought the best out of many of the Bay players with Carwyn Knights showing his defensive attributes in supporting Nye Michael, Sion Edwards and Will Opie with committed tackling.
The Bays frustration with their handling and poor decision making lead to Peter Jones attempting some great solo efforts both in hand and with clever chipping which were thwarted by a determined Caernarfon defence.
The last 10 minutes had the crowd enthralled as both teams slugged it out in the energy sapping spring sunshine, exchanging forward drives and clever kicks which were fielded well by Will Head at full back. With 5 minutes to go Caernarfon gained a series of penalties and scrums on the Bay line, which eventually lead to a quick dart from their scrum half to touch down in the corner, securing the game for the spirited Caernarfon team.
The Bay had the heart and every opportunity to win this game but uncharacteristic poor handling and over eagerness to run with the ball as individuals rather than playing to the strengths of the team. The players must learn to offload the ball before contact and look to use the strength of their team mates outside. Also the forwards must concentrate on providing good clean ball at the breakdown to give the scrum half a chance to spread the ball rather than individually take the ball on themselves and sometimes becoming isolated..
Man of the Match goes to Joe Fisher for some excellent driving work and ball retention. Well done Joe!
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Sunday 25 March
Nant Conwy U14s 12 points v Clwb Rygbi Dinbych U14s 33 points
Dinbych battled back from a slow start to secure a respectable win in a hard fought game at Nant Conwy. A spirited effort by the home side saw the first half end with the teams tied at 7-7. Dinbych turned on the class in the second half to pull away, with some excellent team rugby resulting in them scoring 4 tries to Nant’s solitary effort.
Josh Morris scored the opening try for the visitors adding the conversion and two others later in the game to his tally. Centre Rhys Lloyd scored two tries in the second half and Ynyr Clwyd added a fourth for Dinbych. Gruff Roberts try and conversion gave Dinbych a healthy winning margin.
Nant started the game with purpose and were clearly looking to avenge their defeat at Dinbych earlier in the season. Their early pressure soon resulted in a converted try for their big flanker. Dinbych slowly began to come into the game and were rewarded after a scrum on the home 22 metre line saw fly half Morris with space to run through the defence to touch down under the posts. He went on to secure the extras to bring the sides level.
Nant however continued to show really desire for the win and Dinbych struggled to contain them with only some last gasp defence preventing a further score. Some stern words from the coaching team at half time seemed to have the desired effect on Dinbych as they showed much more composure for the start of the second period.
Some good driving rugby by the forwards took play into the Nant 22 metre line and the ball was released to the backs. Centre Aled Douglas making an impressive return after a long injury lay off, broke through the Nant defensive line and raced towards the try line. Douglas then unselfishly put in a superbly weighted pass to his centre partner Rhys Lloyd to cross for Dinbych’s second try. Morris secured the conversion.
Dinbych having taking the lead then further cemented their advantage with two tries from almost identical play. Again the forwards did the hard work at the coalface to win territory and possession on the right hand side of the field before the ball was released and passed through the backs to the left flank. With the first move, wing Ynyr Clwyd sprinted over by the left flag but had the wit to carry the ball under the posts. Morris’ conversion took the score to 7-21. Within a few short minutes a copybook repeat saw Rhys Lloyd cross for his second to the left of the posts. Although that conversion attempt went just wide, Dinbych were now 7-26 ahead.
Nant were continuing to battle and after a period of forward pressure on the Dinbych 5 metre line they scrambled over for a second try to close the score to 12-26.
The result was never really in doubt at this stage and Dinbych had one more try left in the tank. After lock Rhys Davies rose to safely take another line out on the home 22 metre line, scrum half Elis Vaughan fired out a quick ball to captain Iwan Johnson in the fly half position. Johnson showed prefect timing as he offloaded to full back Gruff Roberts who ran an impeccable angle to beat the home defence and cross for Dinbych’s fifth. Roberts’ took the conversion himself and hit the upright but the rebound went over and took the final score to a creditable 12-33 in Dinbych’s favour.
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Saturday March 24th 2012
Denbigh Youth 20 v Colwyn Bay Youth 0
The Bay travelled to Denbigh with just 15 players, no subs and an inexperienced front row,so unopposed scrums was opted. Both sides struggled to play attractive rugby due to the heat but the visitors were guilty of forcing the game and complicating moves in the first half and not using the downhill slope on the Denbigh 2nd team pitch to their advantage.
The Bay’s line-outs worked well all afternoon with Matt Phelan winning most of his own throws and stealing the odd one also. The Bay had to work hard playing uphill in the second half but were unfortunate to loose centre Ethan Morris due to a head injury early in the second half and fly-half Pat Atkinson 5 minutes later with an ankle injury, this disrupted the side and the home side took advantage of the extra spaces on the park to score their four tries.
Every player put in a big effort and blind side flanker Dewi Hughes man of the match for his ball carries which always gained his side valuable metres.
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Bro Ffestiniog Youths 17 pts v Bangor Youth 20 pts
Following report kindly supplied by Bangor RFC
Bangor Youth’s travelled to Bro today with seven players unavailable through illness and work commitments but the depth of the squad is evident when you can travel to places like Bro and come away with a win.
Bro Ffestiniog had a simple but fairly effective game plan, kick down field for territory and wait for opposition mistakes. It was evenly matched and the first score came from the boot of Alex Griffiths with a penalty making it 3 – 0 to Bangor after 20 minutes. One of the main threats from Bro was always going to be their colossal inside centre and this proved to be the case when he smashed through three would-be Bangor tacklers for a good individual try which was converted to make it 7 – 3 to Bro.
The last play of the 1st half resulted in a penalty to Bangor and they made the right decision by going for the posts and Alex Griffiths once again converted to make the half time score 7 – 6 to Bro.
Bangor started the 2nd half with more gusto and the forwards were particularly working hard in this searing heat, they were rewarded with a well deserved try from Morgan Marsden who drove low and hard through the Bro defence and Alex Griffiths coolly slotted the conversion to make it 7 – 13 to Bangor. Bro responded with a penalty kick of their own making it 10 – 13 to Bangor and the game could now go either way.
The forwards were destroying Bro in the scrum area and coincidentally Bro had an injury in their front row and opted for uncontested scrum which ultimately lost Bangor an attacking platform but it resulted in Bro’s back line getting more ball and a kick through looked like a certain try until he was fouled short of the line resulting in a Penalty Try for Bro putting them in the lead at 17 – 13.
Bangor’s forwards continued to work hard and Jordan Scott piled over only to be judged to be held up resulting in a scrum to Bangor on the 5 metre line. Jordan picked up again falling just short but the ball was recycled quickly and Robert Muldoon forced his way over for a deserved try to take Bangor 1 point ahead with 4 minutes to go, a bit of pressure on Alex Griffiths for the conversion to take us 3 points clear which he coolly slotted straight through the middle leaving Bangor with a 17 – 20 winning scoreline.
This was not the best game of rugby that the Youth have played this season but credit has to be given to the players who travelled to this notoriously difficult place and give it their all and proved they can still win difficult games with players missing. Bro put in a good game with some good players available to them and put Bangor under some pressure particularly when the game became uncontested scrums and the younger Youth boys will learn from this experience. The squad will now have to up the tempo and prepare well for the next game if they are to get a win against a good well organised Nant Conwy side.
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