U13’s Bridgend 5 Cardiff & Vale 7

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On a dark and fog laden Friday evening, the unbeaten boys of Cardiff & Vale District Under 13’s travelled to Cefn Cribwr RFC where near neighbours Bridgend District were lying in wait to claim the visitors’ scalp

Despite the slippery conditions, and a real ‘pea-souper’ of a fog, both sides started at a frantic pace with Bridgend gaining early territorial advantage. Good box kicking from scrum half Will Baird (St Peters), steady defence under the high ball from full back Danny Wardle (St Peters) and sterling hard work from forwards Dave Gooding (Rhiwbina), Sam Sweetingham (Rumney) and Damian Atkins (Glamorgan Wanderers) kept the visitors line intact. In addition, some superb tackling first by prop Kyle Abraham (St Peters) and then by blind side flanker Sam Parker (St Peters) thwarted the Bridgend pack as they continued to press the Cardiff & Vale line.

As the half progressed Cardiff & Vale started to win some ball, in particular via intelligent lineout jumping by captain and No 8 Ollie Hitchings (Pentyrch). The willingness of the visitors to run the ball in the miserable conditions was a compliment to their positive attitude and only on rare defensive occasions did outside half Rhys Griffin (Cowbridge) look to kick the ball. Classy centres Jacob Chilcott (Rhiwbina) and Gabriel Davies (Pentyrch) worked hard to release speedster Christian Roberts-Walters (Cowbridge) on the wing. However such is the growing reputation of the flyer that Bridgend always had two or three players marking him and Cardiff & Vale failed to open their account. Indeed it was the home side that eventually ended the half on top when one of their big forwards went over for an unconverted try following a succession of pick-up and drives.

The second half started with Cardiff & Vale again trying to put the ball through the hands. Effective targets were set up by big second row Elliot Sebestyén-Regan (St Josephs) and as usual open side flanker Matthew Corfield (St Peters) was everywhere playing the link man. However Bridgend again monopolised possession for large periods and containing them had a tiring effect on the Cardiff & Vale players. Indeed, it appeared that their solitary try would be enough to win Bridgend the game.

With ten minutes to play Cardiff & Vale made a number of substitutions, one of which was to prove inspirational. Stuck deep in their own half, and with the clock ticking down, it looked as if the visitors were about to lose their 2 year unbeaten record. However, following an attacking 5 metre scrum the Bridgend wing knocked on and the loose ball was fielded by Christian Roberts-Walters behind his own line. He then took play up to the edge of the 22 before some good phase work from the Cardiff & Vale forwards again secured possession. From the back of an ensuing ruck open side flanker Jack Haines (Cowbridge) put his head down and powered through the first line of tacklers. In quick succession a superb hand off, ‘show and go’ and an outrageous dummy then saw him break clear of the Bridgend defence. Pinning his ears back the stocky flanker left despairing tacklers in his wake to sprint in under the posts for the equalising try. With the very last kick of the game replacement outside half Josh Rees (Rhiwbina) put the conversion firmly between the posts. With the final score at 5-7 the visitors knew full well that they had preserved their unbeaten status by the slimmest of margins.

The “man of the match” award goes to the whole squad for their dogged determination on the night.


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