Fixture

Hoping to build on the sprint demonstrated in last week’s second-half display, the Llantwit Major combined U15s and U16s sadly found themselves on the wrong end of a heavy defeat in their away game this week at Porthcawl.

The fact that the game went ahead at all, however, is a credit to the players and coaches who were determined to give the boys from both teams a run out.  Rewinding a little, and going back to Thursday’s training session, there was an air of optimism in the camp, as Llantwit once again had the luxury of a couple of substitutes with 17-players available for the match.  And, based on the match against the same opponents earlier in the season, it was felt that with these players we could give Porthcawl a good game.

Little did we know at that point, was that over the next 3-days we would lose 4-players from key positions.  Not only now down in numbers to 13, the team had lost both first and second choice hookers, as well as the first, second and third choice of scrum-half!

This meant that the team had a very patched up and experimental look about it as they warmed up on a very cold and cloudy day in Porthcawl.  From his normal prop position, Ieuan Harrison stepped up to take over at hooker, while the vacant scrum half position was filled by outside centre, Kelyn Joseph.  That left a hole at 13 which was filled by open-side flanker, Kieron Martin, while another flanker come lock, Ben Raymond was drafted in to play on the wing.  Normal number 6 Rob Dixon, was moved into the second row, leaving a heavily strapped up team captain, Jakub Jeziorski, on his own in the back row at number 8.

Such disruption would affect the performance of any team, and it proved to have a catastrophic impact on this day.   With the defensive captain having to plug a gap at nine instead of his usual 13 position, the team lacked that cohesiveness that was seen in last week’s performance.  With communication breaking down, the collective defensive effort suffered which meant that any individual error would be punished.  To their credit, Porthcawl took full advantage of this and ran away with things on the scoreboard meaning that the contest was effectively over by the end of the 2nd quarter.

The third quarter continued in the same vein as the first two, but a withering interval talk by head coach Matt Dixon prompted the team into to asking themselves what they could be doing better.  Line-speed, which is a real strength of the team when on form, was felt to be something that could be focused on, so with that common aim the team started the final quarter with real ambition to show the opposition what they are all about.

Rediscovering their voices, and playing with pace and aggression, they looked a different group of players to that from the first 3-quarters.  Pressure forced the home team into errors and penalties, and the kicks to touch which in the first half often missed their mark, were now clearing the whitewash, allowing Llantwit to gain important field position.

The moment of the match for the visitors however came from open play, and rubber stamped what was already a man of the match performance for inside centre Dylan Marsh.  Finally given some space to work in between his own 22 and 10-metre line, Dylan took the ball direct to the line in mid-field before deftly chipping over the advancing defence.  Timing his run perfectly, the traveling fans cheered as the ball bounced once, straight back into his arms.  With 60-metres to go, an outside break took Dylan past one covering defender and his speed did the rest as he outstripped the defence to touch down to the right of the posts for a superb individual score.  A real sign of character and defiance, which felt as good as a match winning try.

That turned out to be the final score of the game, so it was a great note to end on, but It didn’t really make up for what it has to be acknowledged was a heavy defeat.  What it showed once again though, was the spirit of the team.   No matter the circumstances, they will always keep trying and this was once again recognised and expressed by the home coach.  

Congratulations go to Porthcawl, but with a rematch planned for March, we’re keeping everything crossed that we’ll be able to field a full-strength team and make it more of a contest on the scoreboard.  Unfortunately, the rematch will be missing one of the Llantwit Major players, Dylan Dimmick, who played his last game for the team today.  Thanks go to him for his efforts with the team