News

Bridgend Athletic Youth welcomed Maesteg Youth to Newbridge Fields for the final league game before the league splits. It was fantastic to see 19 Ath players turn up raring to go and hungry for a win.

The Ath started strongly against a very forward orientated team and it wasn’t long before a great break through the midfield from centre Dan Osarigie saw him feed Cameron Lewis, who then passed to Sam Veasey to speed around his wing opponent to score a fantastic try under the posts, which was converted by outside half Ethan White.

A short while later Athletic Youth Number 8 Josh Llewellyn broke through several tackles and fed Ellis Bull who crashed over from 5 metres (although by the night it had increased to 50 metres!) to score his first try for the Ath!!  Well done “Bully!!!” The conversion was narrowly missed by Ethan White.

From the restart a scrum was awarded to the Ath on their 10-metre line. Number 8 Josh Llewellyn picked up, handed off a couple of players before storming through and found scrum half Josh Tidy who had run a great supporting line. Tidy drew the full back before feeding flanker Morgan Bennett who outstripped the defence to score the try of the match in the corner, the conversion narrowly missed by Cameron Lewis. This gave the Athletic a 17-0 half time lead.

The second half saw the game being far more forward orientated with Maesteg dominating possession in the first 10 minutes. They capitalised on this by scoring two tries from driving line outs, one of them converted by their outside half to reduce ther deficit to 17-12.

However, the Ath always appeared to be in control of the game and continued to press at every opportunity. By this time, confidence was running high throughout the team and they dominated possession, constantly looking dangerous. Ethan White and Dan Osarigie were both inexplicably called back to be awarded penalties near the halfway line, despite being about to score under the posts!

However, indiscipline from Maesteg saw the second penalty being taken forward 10 metres to become a kickable penalty with the score still at 17-12 to the Ath.

However, such was the confidence that the penalty kick at goal was shunned, and Ethan White kicked to the corner. A great line out take from Morgan Bennett saw a driving maul form. This was dragged down 10 metres short however, man of the match Josh Llewellyn picked up the loose ball, drove through several tackles to score a well-deserved try to give the Athletic a bonus points 22-12 victory

The coaches summed up: “A fantastic effort from all 19 players who all played their part in a great win which will give them lots of confidence moving into the second half of the season. The new coaching set-up could not be prouder of every single player and look forward with great belief and anticipation for what this squad of players are capable of going forward. Well done boys!!”