Fixture

The picturesque setting of Bishops Field in Llandaff was the venue for Under 14’s on Sunday as they took part in their first Cardiff Rugby Regional Cup match. Facing off against Llandaff the visitors always knew they’d be in for a tough fixture with the traditionally strong Cardiff team boasting a strong outfit despite missing a few players who were away on a school trip. The hosts started the stronger using their powerful forwards to make inroads into the Llantwit defence and this soon paid dividends as they run in their first score. Llantwit thought they had drawn level after some elusive running putting Bayley Hillberg over the line but the centre failed to ground the ball in time and the covering defence spilled the ball and prevented score. Hillberg rectified his error minutes later when he was again put into space and this time scored in the corner to draw level. Unfortunately for the visitors Llandaff were in no mood to forego their physical dominance and their big running soon started to take its toll on the Llantwit players. 4 additional first half tries gave the home side a comfortable 27-5 lead.

Despite having no replacements available to them, Llantwit started to up the tempo in the 2^nd half and were first on the scoreboard when a well worked try saw Keenan Faulkner score in the corner. Llandaff hit back straight away to reassert their 22-point lead but the visitors continued to push for a way back in. With Llandaff maybe sensing that the game was in bank, Llantwit’s perseverance was rewarded as 3 tries finished by Hillberg brought the score back to 25-32 with just 5 minutes to play. With both teams now sensing the opportunity to win the game they expelled their last reserves of energy but it was the home side to scored to clinch the game 37-25 and the crucial first win in the group. Despite the result some big plusses for Llantwit as Joel Lougher and Will Jones made impressive first appearances for the team and showed positive signs of things to come. Players of note this week were Declan Lester whose tackle count in the tight was outstanding and Sam Fellows whose work I and around the breakdown improves every week.