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A great Wales win on the Saturday and perfect weather for playing rugby on Sunday provided the canvas for this week’s mini and junior rugby games. The Mini rugby sides were all away from home , as were the Under Sixteens, leaving the Under Twelves and Under Thirteens to defend the home ground. The Under Sevens, Eights and Nines enjoyed their visit to the seaside where Porthcawl were the hosts.

Under Sevens

It was an entertaining affair for the Under 7’s as both sides were evenly matched at Porthcawl. The Sports put on an excellent defensive display to limit the number of try scoring opportunities for their opponents. Sports’ Isaac Davies led with 10 tags and made some great try saving tags. In attack, the Under Sevens showed some great team work to score with Eli McCausland, Dion Williams & Cian Elward all scoring good tries.

The man of the match went to Caelan Cawley with his direct running and excellent tagging.

  It was a close game with the Sports enjoying a narrow win.

Under Eights

It was another great defensive display that laid the foundations of success for the Under Eights as the team  tagged a team total of 53 tags. Similar to their young club mates they turned defence into attack. A total of 19 tries were scored during the game, with a single try ultimately separating the two teams. All players enjoyed running in attack at each other and using all areas of the large pitch. Leo D’Adamo was the top try scorer for the Sports, with 3 fabulous tries. Archie Hall was the top defender with 13 tags.

The Sports try Scorers were Leo D’Adamo (3) Aled Rees (2) Ellis Kendall (2) Rhydian Cronin (1) Gethin Roberts (1) Matthew Griffiths (1)

Bridgend Sports 10 – Porthcawl 9

Under Nines

The Under Nines had a tough encounter against Porthcawl as they started slowly and did not recover. Porthcawl  dominated the game scoring eight tries to the Sports one. To the team’s credit, they came back to face Porth and in true spirit shared players with Porth to ensure as many players as possible  were able to enjoy a game of rugby. The team’s decision paid off with a 35-  25 win. 
Overall Sports tries were scores by Dan Flower, Dan Perriman and one for AJ Crawley. Dan Perriman also won the tackler of the week for constantly pushing forward and making first tackles at the restart. Whilst Rafferty Williams took the Star Player for his noted performance, showing good effort and Sportsmanship by playing for the opposition. As did Matthew Hussell who was quick to offer the Porth side his scrum half services. 

Under Tens

The Under Tens travelled slightly further west to Briton Ferry. Again, defence laid the foundations as the team produced a magnificent defensive display, with a high tackle count that created turnover ball. This restricted Briton Ferry to three tries. In attack, everyone supported each other well to set up good team tries for the Sports to outscore the home team.  The Sports try scorers were: Osian Stephens 3, Noah Roberts 2, Leo Giraud 3, Gryff Lewis 1, Jayden Walters 1, Billy Carpenter-Davies 2, Hari Coulthard 1, Reuben 1. Osian Stephens was awarded Player of the week for making some good passes to players in space.

Under Elevens

The Under Elevens were also at  Briton Ferry. Whilst the team stuttered in defence in the first half, they were effective in attack as they finished  on the positive end of the scoreboard to lead 25-35 at half time.  Some constructive words shared at half time helped transform the performance in the second half. The side  played some lovely rugby which included good tackling and slick handling skills. Effort brings reward and the Sports deserved an overall 30 – 60 win.
Tries were scored by:- 
Joe Major x 2, Charlie Paget x 4, Matthew Oglesbee x 1, Chloe Roblin x 2 and Dylan Evans x 3
Star player of the week was Madison Rees for her fantastic support work throughout the whole game.

Under Twleves

Taibach headed in the opposite  direct to play the Sports  Under Twelves at Newbridge Fields.

Taibach scored first with some good passing out of hand to score a try under the posts which was converted. The Sports levelled the score with a good try of our own before Taibach scored again. Sports responded well scoring another 2 tries before Taibach scored their third to level the scores. The Sports added a fourth try to lead  28-21 lead at half time, even though the team were not of their best.  

They turned it around in the second half as they became stronger at the ruck which enabled the forward to go through some  good phase. The team were also more aggressive in defence  which forced mistakes from the away team. The Sports scored three unanswered tries in the second half to register a 45- 21 win.

Tries were scored by Ben Evans 3, Rhys Anthony, Eli Davies, Evan Keepins and Lewis Lock. Jack Sperduty added five conversions.

Luke Mumford, Dan Harris and Gruff Roberts all  contributed with some powerful runs. The side also welcomed back Ioan Hayes to the fold.

Under Thirteens

One of the great features of rugby union is that it has a unique quality to build friendship off the field from rivalry on it.  The Sports Under Thirteens had the privilege of hosting St James School from West London on Sunday morning. St James were paying their annual visit to the area and wanted to re visit the Sports, following their successful visit in 2017.

This Sunday, both teams worked hard and produced  an open , attractive quality game of rugby that had endeavour and skill.  St James and the Sports had players in key positions who could conjure up moments of skill to create scoring opportunities for their team.

Ten tries were scored , six by the Sports and four by St James. The Sports were given an early wake up call as St James registered the first score when their outside half spotted and exploited a gap in the defensive line then sprint in to score from the half way line. The conversion was added for St James to take an early 7-0  lead.

 There’s no greater motivation than a Wales England rivalry to motivate players , an early shock sparked a response from the Sports and they hit back with three tries.  From the kick-off, the forwards were up quick to jackal and steal the ball at the breakdown, it was moved to the open for the Sports to attack out wide before they were held up from 20 metres out. Efan Dyer broke from the maul , he was in a determined mood and fended off the cover the carry the last cover defenders over the line for try. The first try was all about power the second was about skill and craft as Cian John sliced open the defence , with some dazzling footwork to open up space then evade the last ditch cover for a great try under the posts. The conversion was added to extend the Sports lead to 12-7. Connor Jones was determined not to be left out; he was in the back line to take a pass , cross the gain line and then use his pace to add a further five points , Ieuan Pilliner added the conversion to extend the lead to 19-7.

St James were skilful with the ball in hand and were also smart at the breakdown. Their backs varied play, using the long pass to put players into space. They were also competitive and closed the gap to five points with a try and conversion to make the half time score 19-14. It was a case of “game on” at the start of the second half.

The Sports were quick off the mark and soon stretched their opponents , with a  combination of first up defence then forward power from the set piece and breakdown. Efan Dyer, again showed his hunger when the Sports mounted an attack to take play from the half way to five metres into their opponents twenty two following a drive  from Mackenzie Dent. Efan Dyer broke away from another maul at speed and power his way to score near the posts. Cian John added the conversion. It was pleasing to see Tom Chick on form as he put in the tackles and showed his pace on several occasions. He was rewarded for his efforts when the ball was worked to him on the wing , he accelerated away to leave the covering defenders no chance, as he scored near the corner.  

St James responded with some fine attacking play but some fine tackling from Theo Clarke, Jack Morgan and Will Ellis prevented St James from scoring until four minutes from the end of the game. Connor Jones responded for the Sports before St James registered the final try to bring an end to a fine game of rugby played in near perfect conditions and excellent spirit with new friendships made.     

Under Fifteens

The Under Fifteens enjoyed a week off.

Under Sixteens

The Under Sixteens headed east to play Llandaff North where they suffered a  33 21 defeat in an evenly matched game. Llandaff North raced off into a two try lead before conceding a penalty try which also served to fire up the Sports after a stuttering start. Rhys Jenkins and Dafydd Willaims scored for the Sports, but the team ran out of time and could not close the twelve point gap.