News

After remaining unbeaten in winning Ospreys Youth C East league and gaining promotion before Xmas, Bridgend Athletic Youth warmed up with a friendly away at Llandaff North before starting their Ospreys Div B campaign this Saturday at home to Kenfig Hill.

Both sides tried to make light of a gluepot pitch by attempting to play attractive dry day rugby. It was the Athletic who held the cutting-edge players on the day able to breakdown a determined home defence running out 19-0 victors with three well worked tries.

Centre Callum Reed was one such player and made an early incisive break, but was held inside the Llandaff North 22. Athletic wing George Tellem then chased back a difficult kick and showed skill in turning defence into attack as the Athletic showed their intention to keep ball in hand. Prop Elliot Key won a line out inside his own 22 and fooled the opposition with a dummy before showing great pace to reach the Llandaff 22 before being overhauled.

A combination of good home side defending and the Athletic conceding a high penalty count kept Llandaff in the game until the 25^th minute. Athletic scrum half Thom Lewis took a quick penalty on the home 22 and quick passing involving Ryan Neagle and Tom Reed saw lock Morgan Thomas power over under the posts. Rhys Williams converted. Athletic flanker Josh Llewellyn was yellow carded shortly after for a late tackle.

This sparked an intense final eight minutes of sustained Llandaff pressure inside the Athletic 22. The Athletic pack with strong tackling from Brandyn Fooks, Ben Owen and Ryan Neagle again showed why the team had only conceded 4 tries in 7 league games. To the delight of defence coach Paul Yardley the team weathered the storm to lead 7-0 at half time.

The Athletic introduced Keegan Thomas, Harrison Morgan and Josh Tidy at the start of the 2^nd half. Centre Tom Reed broke into the Llandaff 22 and when the move was cleared Athletic wing Tom Davies collected the kick and passed to lock Morgan Thomas who ran like a wing for 40 metres along the touchline before throwing an inside scoring pass to Rhys Williams to cross and then convert his own try. Davies then pushed an opponent off the ball which sparked an over reaction which out of character for the game saw players from all parts of the field race to become involved. Davies and his opposite number were yellow carded when the dust settled, and when a minute later Athletic hooker Ben Owen questioned a refereeing decision, he became the third Athletic player to visit the sin bin.

The Athletic were now playing some very good rugby with Morgan Thomas, Morgan Bennett, Michael Gillette and Ryan Neagle handling well at forward and centres Tom & Callum Reed with full back Luke Thomas trying training ground moves in difficult handling conditions. Bennett broke clear from one move and with great pace ran around several defenders on an unstoppable 40 metre run to the try line. Unusually Williams was a little too long with his conversion and saw it charged down.

There was no further scoring with the Athletic again locking out Llandaff and registering a hard earned 19-0 and morale boosting victory ahead of their new league campaign.

Ath coach Huw Lewis was pleased with the effort - especially the 2nd half when the team started stringing together training ground moves. He picked out for special mention in the pack flanker Ryan Neagle captaining the side for the first time who led from the front with locks Morgan Bennett and Morgan Thomas also outstanding. The Reed brothers centres Callum & Tom were the pick of the backs.

He said. “As coaches we need to instil the need for discipline giving away far too many silly penalties and for the team to leave the talking to the referee to the team captain. If we replicate this it will cost us in our Ospreys B League campaign.”