RGC1404 U-16s 28
LLANELLI SCARLETS U-16s 7
THE young Gogs gained the ideal payback for the season-opening 34-0 drubbing handed out by the young Scarlets at Llandovery.
With both sides losing players to the Wales U-16s training squad, it was always going to be a more edgy affair than the first fixture, but RGC settled immediately into the task the coaches had set them and piled the pressure on for the opening minutes.
It soon paid dividends as an easy third-minute penalty was converted by Dion Jones.
From the restart, the Gogs defended well and gradually built up the pressure, finishing with a finely worked 10th minute Llion Evans score, which handed an easy conversion to Dion Jones.
Some excellent play soon handed Jason Blackmore a chance and he fought his way through to cross for the Gogs’ second try which Jones duly converted.
Almost immediately from a bad Scarlets restart, RGC surged forward again, this time settling for a penalty that Jones sent straight down the middle for a superb 20-0 lead with just 19 minutes played.
Again the Scarlets rallied, but the young Gogs stood their ground and made their tackles.
However some minor indiscipline crept into the RGC breakdown play and after a hard passage of play, which saw several hard knocks and a Scarlets prop taken off to get stitches above his eye, the visitors bagged a converted score.
RGC lost Aaron Gwyn to the sin bin just as the half ended, but no more points were added and an excellent half finished 20-7.
With 14 men for the opening eight minutes of the second half, the Gogs entertained with good aggressive rugby and a stalwart defence that left a far more lively Scarlets pack reeling as they put all their efforts into clawing back the deficit.
When the 15th man returned, there had been no change in the score and RGC resumed the pressure build-up in search of more points.
Both sides began to ring in the changes and the pace quickened as a 10-minute period of end-to-end rugby ensued.
But it was not until the 55th minute that RGC won a penalty and chose to kick for points, with Dion Jones stepping up once again.
Soon after, a flurry of attacks on the Scarlets’ line eventually saw Dion Jones gain further reward for his hard day’s work as he crossed to score a 57th minute try in the corner.
This result sees RGC1404 U-16s finish a fine fourth in the Regional Age Grade Championship table, ahead of Cardiff Blues North and Newport Gwent Dragons, as well as being the only side to register a win against the table-topping Scarlets side in this campaign.
Regional performance manager for North Wales Marc Roberts said: “I am really pleased for all the players, coaches and management of this squad as all have worked hard and made gradual yet constant improvements with each game throughout the tournament.
“Having said that, the squad are clear that we still have a huge amount of work to do especially with regard to our strength and conditioning, if we are to be as competitive in next year’s U-18s competition.”