Last week saw the second round of the District youth championship matches played with Cardiff and the Vale having a bye in the first round.
The game was played between Cardiff District and the Heart of Wales at Rumney RFC. It was a contrast of styles with Cardiff running the ball at every opportunity while the Heart of Wales used their big driving forwards and a kicking game. After the first ten minutes of sizing each other up Cardiff began to spread the ball wide at every opportunity this resulted in Ryan Moore going over for the first try, Barry Topping-Morris added a penalty a few minutes later to put Cardiff 8 points to nil up.
The home side then missed numerous scoring chances before adding a second try by Daniel Jones to make it 13 nil at half time. Heart of Wales started strongly in the second half and threw everything at the Cardiff defence but it was Cardiff who scored next, a try by Josh Clevedon who converted his own try put the home team 20 points to nil up.
With Head Coach Crispin Cormack believing the game was won he introduced a steady stream of player from the substitutes bench for the last 15 minutes. This altered the balance of the side and persuaded the Heart of Wales side to throw everything into attack this resulted in two quick tries to give the scoreline a bit of respectability but this is a game that Cardiff should have won by a mile had they taken their chances.
Cardiff & District 20 Heart of Wales District 10
Pentyrch mini and juniors have just returned from Rodez in the south of France where they represented Wales in the European Top 12 tournament. The festival, which is for players born in 1994 and 1995, was contested by 35 teams that included all the major French sides plus a representative from each of the home nations, Eire and Spain.
In the morning competition, Pentyrch beat Castres 10-0, Espanyol 25-0 and Rodez 5-0 but lost 5-0 to Montpellier in a closely fought contest. This meant the team did not qualify for the finals as only the 8 group winners went through but they did go into a further group to decide places 9 to 12 with the four other strongest runners up.
In that competition they drew with Waterford from Munster 5-5, beat Belfast Academy 10-0 but lost to Montferrand 5-0 to claim 10th place in the competition overall which made them the highest placed team outside of France. The festival was eventually won by Bourgoin who beat Toulouse in the final.
The Pentyrch players and fans were ambassadors for their club, region and country whilst away and will be honoured to attend the competition once again next year when teams from South Africa, New Zealand and Australia will also be invited.
As a big thank you from the region, the French organisers, who are visiting Pentyrch RFC in the near future, will be presented with a signed Cardiff Blues ball by Robin Sowden-Taylor.