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The Ath Under 17’s travelled to Llandaff North to play a fixture with the Ath Youth having no game this weekend.

The Ath included 10 of the current Under 16’s squad who played alongside 10 first year Youth players, against a very strong Llandaff North team who had included a number of second year Youth players and looked physically intimidating.

The first 10 minutes was brutal with both teams’ defences dominating the game. However, great carrying from Fynn Mordecai, Harrison Morgan, Josh Llewellyn and Ben Owen saw the Ath gain a foothold in the opposition 22. Quick hands from busy scrum half Thom Lewis and outside half Ethan White saw centre Tom Florence hit a great angle to break through. Despite being held up 10 metres out he managed to offload to the supporting Morgan Bennett to crash over the line. The try converted by Ethan White.

Back came Llandaff who drove downfield and kicked to the corner. The ball stayed in play, but full back Sam Veasey won the race to the ball to kick it into touch. Llandaff then used a driving line out to get near to the Ath line and their number 8 squeezed over for a try which was not converted.

Back came the Ath with the try of the match. Llandaff were in possession with several of their forwards driving at the Ath. However, a great tackle from flanker Ryan Neagle saw him rip the ball from probably Llandaff’s biggest player, inside the Ath 10 metre line. A fantastic turn of pace saw him storm through the first line of defence. The opposition full back thought he had Neagle but a step and hand off saw Ryan race away with the opposition trailing behind him to score a remarkable try converted by Ethan White. 14-5 to the Ath at half time.

The second half saw the much fitter Ath team start to dominate with the forwards gaining the upper hand to give a constant stream of possession to the dangerous looking Ath threequarters. Forwards including Ayo Ilagan, Ben Owen, Ollie Gibbs, Elliot Key and Emyr Anthony constantly smashed through the opposition with second row Harrison Morgan a constant nuisance at the ruck totally disrupting any Llandaff ball. With this constant quality ball scrum half Thom Lewis was giving some great service to Ethan White who was dominating the game with some clever kicks behind the opposition wings forcing Llandaff backwards.

However, a few missed tackles saw Llandaff score a converted try totally against the run of play to bring the score back to 14-12 to the Ath.

By this time however, Llandaff were visibly tiring and Ethan, noting this, changed tactics and started to run at the opposition. A fantastic break from inside his own half saw White break through several tackles. He fed the supporting Tom Florence who raced away to score under the posts, for a try converted by White. A short while later the Ath were awarded a penalty just outside the 22 and White kicked the 3 points.

A few minutes later White again broke through from the half way line and rounded the full back. He was set to score however was tackled illegally just short of the line. Morgan Bennett charged in to clear out and was adjudged to have used no arms and received a yellow card. The penalty was reversed, and Llandaff managed to clear their lines. However, the Ath gained possession and a clever kick through saw Llandaff take the ball over their own line with the Ath awarded a 5-metre scrum. Super sub wing George Tellem managed to convince the entire Llandaff team that he was the main threat which enabled Ethan White to again break through to score under the posts. The conversion was narrowly missed by Tellem to signal the end of the game. Final score 29-12 to the Ath.

All in all, a fantastic game of rugby from 20 extremely committed and talented players with number 8 Josh Llewellyn gaining the oppositions vote for Man of the Match. The Coaches are extremely proud of every single player who took the field and, with a few more players eager to come back into the fold, things are starting to look extremely bright for the second half of the season for the AthleticYouth team.