Throughout a hard fought and dogged battle, the Cardiff and Vale Under 14 side managed to keep their heads high and narrowly beat a determined and physical Pembrokeshire side.
Following several trail and development days throughout the summer, Cardiff and Vale were feeling confident going into Sunday's match, and rightly so, as all involved had worked over the summer to improve their fitness and to work on new aspects of the game, most notably lifting in lineouts, and pushing in scrums.
Both sides started with good intent, with the ball being thrown wide at every opportunity, with the Pembrokeshire 12 proving to be a real threat to the C&V defensive line.
Early on in the game, both sets of forwards battled well for supremacy, but in the end the nod had to go to C &V, with scrums being turned over thanks to the hooking of Peter Lloyd, and some solid work by the front 5. Strong running off the back of scrums from Reuben Tucker and Liam Union gave C&V plenty of opportunities to attack, but more often than not, unforced errors, and poor control at the base of rucks cost them possession.
Following an early stalemate Rhys Patchell converted an easy penalty to give C&V a 3-0 lead.
Pembrokeshire then showed some good attacking flare and some weak C&V tackling saw the no. 14 run in a soft try from the halfway line, the try was converted to make the scores 7-3 at half time.
Both sides were reluctant to make many changes at half time, but as it was a warm-up match for the season, both sides made good use of their benches to ensure that all the boys had a game.
C&V dominated the second half, with Pembrokeshire rarely troubling the C&V half, but final passes and a lack of control, coupled with some outstanding Pembroke defence denied the Blues any score.
Following a constant period of pressure on the Pembroke line, C&V finally managed to score with the last move of the match, Joe Rapson emerged from the bottom of a ruck having scored the winning try, Darren Breed converted the try to leave the final score 10-7 to C&V .
Notable performances for C&V were Luke O'Brien, with a man-of-the-match performance from blindside and captain, Josh Hurley and Cieran Driscoll always looked a threat in attack, and David Davies impressed on the Wing.
The match gave both sets of coaches plenty to think about for the coming season, and with some good pointers about the C&V ' weaknesses, the coaches will be working hard with them over the next few moths, to ensure that a successful season follows!
Pembrokeshire U14 7 Cardiff and Vale U14 10