News

The Athletic U7 and U9’s turned out on the Friday at Baglan and along with the rest of the Mini section visited Llanishen on the Sunday. The U8’s were pleased to welcome back British Lion Rhys Webb’s son Regan to their ranks after his time in France. The Under 13’s travelled to Nantyfyllon.

Bridgend Athletic Under 7s took a squad of 10 players to Port Talbot Friday evening for a fixture v Baglan. Fantastic team effort with defensive and evasive skills shown by Jacob Martin, Isaac Rees, George Evans, Ollie Dowson, Rohan Davies, Luis Tooze, Matthew Hallez, Osian Phillips, Callum Brown & Matthew Fyfe.

 On Sunday Bridgend Athletic Under 7s took a squad of 16 players to Cardiff for a fixture v Llanishen. Due to Llanishen having similar number two pitches were set up with two teams of 8 taking the field. Bridgend Athletic were victorious again outscoring their opponents. Stand out players were Charlie Tune, Callum Brown & Billy Creed with top tagger awards going to Isaac Rees & Matthew Hallez. Next up for the 7s is a home fixture vs Bargoed.

On a sunny Sunday morning the Under 8 Ath boys headed for Llanishen. With everyone beaming from the Wales v England victory, the boys were all eager to put on a great performance to match.

All players played with speed and outperformed their opponents with ease. Scoring 31 tries in total winning all 4 matches.

It was great to see all of them enjoying the game with big smiles on their faces, no more than Regan Webb who had the biggest smile of all and relished being back with his team mates. Welcome back Regan and well done everyone on today’s performance.

Bridgend Athletic Under 9s took a squad of 13 players to Port Talbot on Friday evening for a fixture vs Baglan. Great defensive effort shown by Rudi Quinn, Mason Brown, Ethan Davies, Osian Kenny & Grayson Lewis Whelan. Try scorers in a 35-20 victory were Dylan Jones 4, Ethan Davies 2 & Osian Kenny.

On Sunday the under 9s took a squad of 15 players to Cardiff for a fixture v Llanishen & St Albans. Bridgend Athletic started strongly with some strong direct running from the forwards. Try scorers were Ethan Davies 3, Osian Kenny & Oliver Turvey. Stand out tacklers were Ethan Davies, Harry Clark, Jude Lewis & Dylan Jones. Final Score: Llanishen 20 Bridgend Athletic 25

Bridgend Athletic struggled at first against St Albans with the Ath players not completing their tackles and allowing St Albans to off load and keep the ball alive. Good evenly contested match in the end. Try scorers were Harry Clark, Rhys Cawley & Dylan Jones. Stand out tacklers were Ethan Davies, Zack Hughes, Dylan Jones, Jude Lewis & Grayson Lewis Whelan. Final Score: St Albans 15 Bridgend Athletic 15

Bridgend Athletic U10s travelled to Llanishen on Sunday in what was a game played in perfect sunny conditions. The Ath, sporting several injuries started brightly, using their big forwards to crash up the middle and create space out wide for Oliver Williams to score his first try of the match. Straight from the KO, the Ath managed to turn over the ball with great counter rucking by Jacob and Osian. The ball was spread wide across the backs where Oliver pinned his ears back to run in his second try from 30 yards. The Ath were full of confidence at this stage and great interlinking by the forwards set up Theo to side step his way past two players and score in the corner. Oliver grabbed a hat trick try, before Llanishen hit back with a well worked try of their own to end the first third 4-1 to the Ath.

 From the start of the second third, the Ath were on the front foot, with Rhys and Cameron making the hard yards with their strong direct running. Quick ball by Monty set up Jamie to score the Ath's fifth try. Llanishen responded well and grabbed a couple of tries of their own, taking advantage of some missed tackles in midfield. The try of the match came when a great tackle by Chaitu in midfield allowed Shon to get over the ball and create the turnover. Strong running by Ollie and Leo set up Jacob to run through a couple of defenders and pop the ball to Albert who run in from 10 yards. A second try scored by Theo and a further four tries by Oliver saw him in seventh heaven with a remarkable 7 touchdowns, resulting in the Ath winning 11-6.

The under 11’s travelled away to take on Llanishen on a 3G pitch. The game started well for the Ath who scored 2 early tries to take a well-deserved lead. Then 2 well worked backs moves created overlaps and Llanishen were able to level the scores. The next 10 minutes were difficult to watch and understand with the Ath crossing the line twice only to be held up and somehow turned over which led to another Llanishen try. The boys seemed to drop their heads slightly as the ref penalised them constantly at the breakdown. Some great carrying by the forwards and slick passing out to the backs enabled the boys to score again and the half ended 4-4.

The second half started brightly, and the boys started to dominate both territory and possession and soon took the lead 5-4. Then some dangerous Llanishen tackling went unpunished with at least 2 tip tackles missed by the referee. A crucial turnover on our own line lead to our number 10 being picked up and dumped on his head with the referee awarding a penalty but no sanction. This certainly raised the intensity of the game and the boys stepped up again and began to dominate the contact area and ran in another hard-earned try.

 The last 5 minutes were strange to say the least with the Ath having a player sent off for making a tackle. Again, the boys stepped  up and held on for a well-deserved 6-4 victory. Well done to all involved, today they became a tighter team and overcame far more than just the opposition.

The U13’s travelled to play Nantyfyllon for the first time in 2 years.  With several key personnel missing due to holiday and injury, the U13’s had a few players out of position for the game.

The Ath started off at a good pace with some quick handling and putting Nanty under pressure. It was from a quick passage of play that the Ath scored the first try, with Leo Quinn spotting space behind the defensive line, chasing his own kick, managing to pressurise the mistake and picking up the ball to cross the line.  From the restart the Ath kept the ball in hand with the forwards making good ground with their pick and go tactic. With the pressure starting to tell on the Nanty defence the 2nd try was scored soon after with Alex Tidball running a great line to crash over near the posts.  With our regular kicker missing up stepped Rhys Wilson to kick the conversion.  The remaining few minutes of the half Nanty put the Ath under pressure for the first time with some strong running, but the defence held strong to take a 0-12 lead at half time.

The second half started as the first ended with Nanty on the attack running some hard lines but making some silly errors letting the Ath of the hook. However, the pressure soon paid off when a well worked lineout move close to the line let Nanty crash over near the posts.

With the score 5-12 heading into the last few minutes after some good Ath defence, it was the turn of the U13’s to put the ball in the corner from a penalty. With a well-rehearsed line out move and some good hands by the backs the ball got out wide to Rhys Hocking who showed his turn of space to score in the corner.  The conversion was kicked by Rhys Wilson to make the final score 5-19 to the Ath.

With so many players missing, from key positions it was a great team performance to come away with a win.