On Sunday, the Whitland Under 12s team, sponsored by All Pump Services, entertained Chipstead RFC.

The Surrey-based touring side started well, with their larger pack dominating at the breakdown. However, the first score came from the limited ball that Whitland managed to secure.

Following good work from the pack, Llyr Lloyd at scrum-half provided quick ball out to Jack Bowen, who delivered a perfectly weighted pass to Josh Watson, who cut through the first line of defence and used his pace to outsprint the cover defence for the 50 yards run-in to cross the line. He then secured the extra two points by converting his own try.

If Whitland thought this was going to be easy, then they were mistaken. Chipstead had other ideas and came back strongly from the kick-off and, following concerted pressure, Archie Macae brushed off tackles for a deserved try under the posts.

Tom Clarke took the honours of slotting the ball through the upright to bring the scores level. Chipstead again started strongly from the kick-off and despite some spirited tackles from Whitland, they were unable to thwart a determined Sam Buckland, who raced in and scored a try to put the visitors ahead, only for the conversion to go astray. At the re-start, Whitland began to throw the ball along their backline and find the powerful runners of Jamie Harries and William Cervetto, who began to make inroads into the Chipstead defence. It was from a typical run that the Whitland pack began to turn the pressure on the opposition, with Christian Bishop, Thomas Banner and Luke Stephens in the thick of it with a series of strong driving mauls, which put the visitors under siege back over there own line.

Unfortunately, the ball was called as 'held up' by the referee Neil Jenkins and the half-time whistle came just in time to relieve the pressure on the Chipstead pack.

The second half started as the first half had ended, with Caspar Lewis, Chris Spratt and replacement Matthew Pilot working well as a unit in the pack. Following a period of pressure, Ryan Powell found himself five yards out and with a touch of 'white line fever' powered over the line to bring the scores level in a well-made try.

As Josh Watson had left the field injured, the kicking duties were handed to Jack Bowen, who put Whitland back into the lead. From the re-start, it was more of the same, with the talented wingers, Shaun Williams and Aaron Rees, becoming more involved and unlucky not to add to the score-sheet.

With the back row combination of Llyr Ebsworth, Ryan Powell and, in particular, William Griffiths in outstanding form, the visitors found it hard to get back into the game.

This paved the way for the backs to secure good quality ball and from 40 yards out, the second half replacement, Josh Jones, found a gap in the defence to cut through and outpace the cover wing to run in and score under the posts, to make it an easy conversion for Jack Bowen.

Whitland were camped in the visitors' territory for the last quarter of the game and prior to the final whistle, the home side pack were over the opposition try line, but unfortunately the referee was unable to confirm the grounding.

The two sides were applauded by both sets of supporters for contributing to an exciting encounter, with both teams wishing to run the ball at every opportunity.

Final score: Whitland Juniors RFC 21 Chipstead RFC 12.

U8s unbeaten in St. CLEARS tourney

Whitland Under 8s travelled to St. Clears on Sunday to play in their mini tournament. The weather conditions were prefect and some thrilling rugby was played by the youngsters. Whitland won their three games, beating Hendy eight tries to five, Mynydd Y Garreeg six tries to two and St. Clears by five tries to nil.

The Whitland tries were scored by Aled Davies, Josh Davies, Owain Hughes, Joshua Griffiths, Che Thomas, Iwan Morgans, James Thomas, William Rees, Jamie Thomas, Stephen Pilot and Sebastian Howells. Whitland's next game is away to Llangwm on Sunday.

New players are always welecomed. For further details, contact the coach, Edward Howells, on 01994 240914.