Whitland Youth nil

Cardigan Youth 42 pts.

A very strong Cardigan Youth team arrived at Whitland for Saturday's game with a full complement of players, including their six county players, so it was surprising then, that the game was played with uncontested scrums at their request.

Cardigan, as early as the first two minutes, were given an opportunity when the home side were deemed to have held on to the ball on the floor.

Luke Rogers stepped up to take the kick at goal, but was off target.

The first try came minutes later. With play in the Cardigan half, their outside-half kicked the ball long to touch. The Whitland fullback showed good agility to keep the ball in play, but in doing so, put the covering scrum-half Rhys Cadogan under pressure.

With the opposition chasing him down, his attempted clearance kick was charged down for Cardigan to gather and score a try that was converted by Rogers.

The second try came on the 15-minute mark when impressive Pembrokeshire County youth player Sean Owens picked up and ran through some weak tackling to score. It was again converted to make it 14-0.

Cardigan's third score was an excellent try. Good lineout ball on halfway was spread across the pitch for Alun Jenkins to break the defensive line and show good speed to touch down. Again the try was converted by Rogers, taking the score to 21-0.

Whitland players were by now chasing the game and maybe trying too hard by running the ball from everywhere, when getting field position might have been more beneficial.

The final try of the half just about summed up the first period for the home side, as when they were attacking, a catalogue of errors, including a missed kick and a blatant knock-on, allowed Sean Owens to claim a fourth score, and with the conversion, it was 28-0 at half-time.

Following some tactical changes, Whitland improved in the second half, with Aled John and Gethin Lewis driving hard and carrying the ball forward and fellow forward Dewi Davies popping up everywhere, tackling and supporting at the breakdown.

This allowed centres Ryan Davies and Dan Lewis to attack and break the gainline.

With the game now being very evenly contested, another mistake gave Cardigan their next try.

After Pembrokeshire Schools outside-half Sean Edwards put in a raking kick along the touchline, the Whitland defence failed to deal with it as two players dithered with the bouncing ball. This was capitalised on by the Cardigan right winger who put his foot to the ball and then easily won the chase for the touchdown.

The home side's afternoon went from bad to worse when, after a fracas in midfield, the referee yellow carded Ryan Davies for retaliation.

This allowed the visitors to regain the initiative and gain a foothold on the home five- metre line, from where they eventually scrambled the ball over the line for the sixth and final try of the day.

The Whitland team again raised their game and were unlucky not to claim a score of their own. Having started to carry the ball at forward, they worked up to 10 metres from the Cardigan try line. Winning a rare penalty, which was taken quickly by the scrum-half, he was tackled immediately and Cardigan won the ball on the floor and cleared their line, much to the annoyance of the vocal home crowd, who felt that the referee had ignored the 10-metre law.

For the final 10 minutes, it was all Whitland as they camped in the opposition 22, but could not break down the Cardigan defensive effort, where several of their player were literally on their knees on hearing the final whistle, having run out 42-0 winners.

Two of the Whitland coaches, Mike Jones and Owen Davies, explained after the match that, although disappointed with the result against an excellent Cardigan side who are top side in the league, considering they were without nine first choice players through illness and others away during half term, it was a very hard fought game.

It can only serve to drive up the standard of youth rugby at Whitland, where some players who had not seen since early season and under 16s boys who stepped up to help out, had a chance to experience youth rugby at its best.