Gwent 16s Take National Crown
Gwent District U16s secured the National Inter-District Cup with a hard fought victory over a much organised Carmarthenshire Outfit.
Chris Cornford’s players looked to emulate the feat of Caerphilly district last season and keep the cup in Gwent, but it was the West Walians who held the upper hand in the early exchanges. A strong set-piece enabled the Carmarthenshire outfit to settle quickly and gained the upper hand territioriarly and possession wise.
After a tense opening quarter however, it was Alun Howells (Carmarthen Quins) who gave the west walians a deserved lead after an infringement at a break-down, co-incidentally the first penalty of the game after 18 minutes of frantic rugby.
This seemed to kick start the Gwent boys, and after some decent work from lock Daniel Sutherland at the lineout, and scrum half Joe smith, Matt O’Brian finally put the Gwent outfit in the right parts of the park. O’Brian showed a fair bit of character after he was caught in possession a few times early on by the impressive Carmarthenshire defence.
The half continued with Carmarthenshire having the majority of the possession, but with five minutes to go, Kyle Tayler charged down a clearance to put pressure on Carmarthenshire Full Back Rhys Davies, who was then penalised for holding on. Quick thinking from live-wire hooker Aled Collier resulted in the first try of the game, as the burly hooker barged over from 8 yards. O’Brian missed the simple conversion, which would have put some daylight between the two sides.
The second half was very much like the first, with the majority of the battle taking place in the middle third of the park. An impressive 35 metre penalty from O’Brien stretched the Gwent lead to 8-3, but Carmarthenshire responded straight from the re-start, where a poorly taken kick off resulted in an equally impressive penalty for Howells. The score remained at 8-6 for some time, but the major turning point in the game came when the impressive Tayler was sin-binned for a sloppy penalty.
10 minutes on the clock, and a man down however, the Gwent forwards managed to stay firm, as they tackled for their lives as Carmarthenshire barraged the try line from a number of scrums. Some decent turnover ball from no. 8 Vickery and captain Adam Lewis though, provided the opportunity for O’brian to put the Gwent side back into the Carmarthenshire half and relive some of the pressure.
The game remained tense until the final whistle, and a missed O’Brian drop goal would have made the task even harder for Carmartheshire, but in the end, the Gwent Boys held on for a fantastic victory. “To be fair to Carmarthenshire, they caused Gwent to make a lot of errors, and we had to work harder than before at the breakdown, but our boys fully deserved to win this after the work they’ve put in throughout the season” said a delighted coach Cornford.
That makes it an unbeaten season now for both the Gwent 16s and Gwent 15s, who can hopefully continue this development over the next few seasons.
The Gwent 16s will parade their trophy at Rodney Parade at Half Time during the Connaght Match on April 18th.
Gwent Side
James Miller, Jonny Morris, Joe Blackmore, Leighton Bellamore, Sam wood, Matt O’Brian, Joe Smith; John Lavender, Aled Collier, Adam Lewis – Capt., Mitch Waters, Daniel Sutherland, Mick Hard, Kyle Tayler, Rhys Vickery; Greg Page, Adam Young, Harry Taylor, William Coldrick, Matthew Sullivan, Lloyd Hodler, Ben Burgam
Coaches
Chris Cornford, Andrew wood, Mike Paul
