Cardiff and Vale U14 can set off on their annual trip to Italy full of confidence after a resounding victory of Blues North Development at Cardiff Arms Park.
Cardiff and Vale U14 can set off on their annual trip to Italy full of confidence after a resounding victory of Blues North Development at Cardiff Arms Park.
With the weather conditions all but perfect both sets of players and coaches were looking forward to a potential fire cracker. However the Blues South side had other ideas and clinically exploited some sloppy Blues North defending during the opening moments. During the early encounters Blues North were simply outplayed by the well drilled South side who came out and hit the ground running and took an early strangle hold on the game. It wasn't long before the scoreboard started to tick over, as outside half Tyler Williams converted a penalty. From the restart the North were instantly put back under pressure through the dangerous running of the Blues South backs that seemed to break the line with ease. A converted Dan Owens lifted Blues South who built momentum with every attacking option. The home side stretched their lead through a converted try and the North side simply had no answer to the excellent team work of Blues South. They had a mountain to climb if they were going to get back in the game.
With possession and territory dominated by Blues South, Blues North found it difficult to build any phases and gain good field positions to score from. Flanker and Captain Shane Young didn't give the North an inch and was the catalyst in denying the North any quality possession to play off. However outside half Jarrod Evans (Pontypridd) jinked over for an unconverted try after a clever show and go to get some points on the score board. Referee Edwards frustrated the travelling supporters, by disallowing what seemed like a perfectly good try for Beddau winger Adam Baker, as he deemed the pass to be forward. The North never really recovered from that and their body language began to show it wasn't going to be their night. Blues South, were simply the better team by far in the first half.
With a both teams selecting large squads for the game, a number of changes were made in the second half and the game became scrappy, as neither team managed to maintain the structure or performance of the first half. Further tries from Callum Sheedy, Shane Young and a controversial penalty put the game to bed for Blues South. The fixture proved to be a great success for the player Development Departments at the Blues, as over 60 boys put themselves in the spotlight ready for next season's Dewar Shield.
This will prove to be a bitter pill for some of the North boys and their Arms Park experience was not a good one. In their defence, they have only been together for a short period of time as a group, and this game was always going to be a challenge. Having said that, there were patches in the game that were promising and they put together some great phases and competed until the final whistle.
A huge amount of thanks must go to Brian and his staff for supporting this fixture and giving the boys the opportunity to play on the Arms Park.
Tries Scorers - Blues South - Dan Owen x2 / Callum Sheedy / Matthew Edwards / Shane Young
Cons - Tyler Williams / Callum Sheedy
Pens - Tyler Williams
Tries Scorer Blues North - Jarrod Evans