Fixture

Brecon RFC | Youth Team Under 18 7 - 5 Rumney RFC | Youth Team Under 18
Ioan Harris
Conversion 1
Benjamin JAMES Pritchard
Try 1

Match Report
19 January 2020 / Team News

Brecon Youth 7 - Rumney Youth 5

Brecon Youth started their New Year League programme with an impressive home win against Rumney, Cardiff. Having secured a place in the North Blues Youth Cup Semi Final with a great away win at Merthyr a week ago they continued to build confidence and belief as they enter a busy second half of the season.

The score-line would tend to suggest that this was a dour contest played in poor conditions in mid-winter. Mid-winter it certainly was but the game was anything but dour and on a cool, bright, sunny day and on a perfect playing surface both teams entertained a large crowd. Both teams were ambitious and tried to move the ball at every opportunity. The fact that only two tries were scored was down to excellent defence shown by both teams and the fact that at times both teams were guilty of being overambitious in looking for magical offloads when simply taking the ball to ground and re-cycling would have been retained possession and opened up further opportunities. To criticise these young players for their ambition, however, would be counterproductive. They looked to express themselves and they will learn from their ambition and become better players as a result.

The game featured some great individual play. Early in the match Brecon full back Ethan Morgan made a great counter attacking run that turned defence into attack. From number 8 Luke Wilkinson made a number of impressive runs with ball in hand while both flankers, Matthew Williams and Kieran Dunford covered acres of ground and got through a mountain of work. Rhys Peters in the centre is a very competent footballer while partner Konrad Krywko ran hard and defended with equal impact. On the wings Seb Thomas and Joe McDean did well to cope with their lively opponents while looking dangerous when given space. At half back Ryan Williams and Ioan Harris were great links. The Williams pass is quick and he possesses a lovely sidestep while Harris linked well with his outside backs and kicked very well when needed. The mix and match front row of Rhys Mills, Dewi Worwood, Christian and Vincent, Morante and Dylan Williams earned parity in the scrums against a big pack and carried well in the loose often looking to show good handling skills. Second rows Rhodri Jenkins and Ben Pritchard worked hard throughout and put in some impressive tackles. Iwan Havard showed up, as he always does, as a very promising well-rounded player with a high level of skills and it was good to see Oliver Lewis making a rare cameo appearance.

The fact that at the end of the first half neither side had recorded a score had little to do with lack of enterprise. Defences were very good and that combined with a number of handling errors when chances were created maintained both the parity between the two sides and the scoreless nature of the match.

It took a further ten minutes before the first score came. Ioan Harris created the opportunity with a great kick to the corner. From there Brecon hammered at the visitors’ line with drive after drive but just when it seemed that Rumney may hold out Ben Pritchard took the ball at pace and blasted through the stubborn defence to score. Harris kicked what turned out to be a crucial conversion.

For the next twenty minutes the pattern of the first half was repeated with neither side gaining ascendancy. As the game entered the final minutes Rumney became desperate to score and most of their creative work game down the left flank where their wing looked lively and dangerous. With just minutes remaining he got his reward as he broke through to score. The kick to kevel the match failed and Brecon saw out the final phases to register an impressive win which will go a long way towards lifting confidence and belief.

Players
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