Fixture

 

The Athletic were forced to make 7 changes from the side that played Maesteg the previous week as they welcomed the other Llynfi Valley side Maesteg Harlequins to Newbridge Fields and emerged 18-17 victors. The side relied heavily on their youth team with half backs Dan James and Luke Bevan and centre Stuart Floyd-Ellis in the backs and lock Tom Seldon and flanker Ben Davies at forward. A sixth youth player flanker Luke Williams came on at half time. With such a young side playing a largely experienced Harlequins, the Athletic’s game plan was to run the ball from all parts of the field in an attempt to counter the powerful Maesteg eight.

 

The Quins playing with a breeze at their backs opened strongly and in the opening minutes forced a line out 5 metres from the Athletic line. A well-controlled driving maul saw hooker Jay Ronan cross in the corner. A touchline conversion from outside half Lloyd Bradley gave the visitors a 7-0 lead. The Athletic were finding it difficult to get out of their half. Eventually after 10 minutes they moved the ball across the line 15 metres from the Quins try line. Unfortunately a wayward pass saw Quins wing Jack Picton fly hack the ball along the touchline. He continued dribbling along the touchline and outpaced the Athletic covering defence to cross wide out to stretch the lead to 12-0.

The Athletic came back into the game and centre Stuart Floyd-Ellis reduced the deficit to 12-3 with a well struck penalty. Late in the half the Quins opened up play from a 30 scrum 30 metres out and saw full back Rhodri Thomas enter the line to cross in the corner. With the final move of the half the Quins picked up a yellow card for tackling a player without the ball. Floyd-Ellis reduced the Athletic's half time deficit to 17-6 kicking the resultant penalty.

 

The Athletic started the second half on the front foot. Some good forward play from locks MOM Chris John in only his second Athletic appearance and Tom Seldon and No 8 Griff Davies set up field position for the young speedy backs to come into play. Flankers Ben Howe and Luke Williams were in the faces of the opposition forcing them to concede a penalty. Scrum half and vice captain Aled Thomas had come on for his first league game of the season after suffering a broken jaw in a pre season friendly. He took a quick tap penalty which saw the ball moved swiftly from outside half  Bevan to centre Michael Hathaway who timed his pass for full back Dan Howells to enter the line and cross in the corner to make the score 17-11 to the Quins.

 

Despite playing against a heavier 8 the front row of props Wayne Fooks and Lewis Davies and hooker Nathan Holman survived several Harlequins attempted push over tries from a succession of 5 metre scrums .In fact on occasions they even drove back their experienced opponents. It was now a battle of the Quins trying to keep it tight with rolling mauls against the Athletic playing an expansive game with wings Chris Walker and Chris Price seeing plenty of the ball. When the Quins did attempt to break out of defence in a handling move 35 metres from their line young centre Stuart Floyd-Ellis intercepted and ran in for an opportunist try. His conversion saw the Athletic lead for the first time in the game at 18-17.

 

The Athletic continued to try and move the ball from all parts of the field in the final minutes when tactically they should have played territory forcing the Quins to attack from deep. They nearly paid the price in the dying seconds when they conceded a penalty on the touchline 22 metres out. The Athletic held their breath as the position was virtually the same as the conversion in the first minute .However against the breeze the kick was short of the posts allowing the Athletic to kick the ball dead and record a much need victory by one point – having lost their previous two games by a single point. They owed much to the players from their Youth side who all played a very committed game, which augurs well for future seasons. Team manager Paul Hearne commented “It was a good win for us considering one third of the starting line up were 18 year old youth players. Our game plan to throw the ball around paid off in the end as we gained control as the Harlequins tired and we came back from a 17-6 half time deficit. We hung on in the first half and became a little jittery at the end through lack of experience, but overall we deserved the win against a far more experienced Quins side.”