Fixture

The Young Saints paid for their slow start in this early season local derby against last season's Dragons Plate winners, Caerleon. The opening 10 minutes saw Caerleon race to a two try lead as St Julians stood off their opponents, allowing their capable centre pairing to run at will, leaving Tay Smith exposed facing two on one situations on a number of occasions throughout the first half. It was only excellent scramble defence and good tackling from full back Myles Duggan which prevented the hosts from stretching their lead beyond two tries.

Saint Julians finally came into the game and rallied. The 10-12 channel of Riley Hayward and Harri Morgan began to exert pressure on their opposite numbers, which caused them to turn the ball over and hand possession to St Julians. With this possession, and led for the first time by hooker Liam Luckett who also had an excellent game at the set piece, the Young Saints converted field position into points for their first try of the game from Mitchell Watkins.

Caerleon possess a skillful and pacy back row and three quarter line, and they soon broke through again to reinstate their two try lead towards the end of the first half. The message at half time was about belief and agression in contact, and the Young Saints duly delivered in the second half, winning it 4-2 in terms of tries, and only succumbing to defeat due to Caerleon kicking more conversions. The forwards carried hard with good yards gained which took them into the opposition 22m on 3 occasions, and on each occasion they came away with a try; une from Riley Hayward, who backed his pace to beat the oustide defence and touch down, and two from number 8 Blaide Howells.

Perhaps the move of the match came in the last play. Blaide Howells carried from the base of a scrum and offloaded to Riley Hayward, who in turn popped in to Tay Smith, who executed an audacious "cat flap" pass to Harri Morgan, who burned 4 covering defenders to score a 70 metre run in and equal the game in terms of tries scored.

It is perhaps a reflection of this team's progress that the coaches expected the team to win the game, especially as their opponents won the Dragons Plate last year, but the coaches have absolute faith in the ability and skill of the team, and they know, as will the players, that had they played to their full potential the result would probably have been very different. The message in training will be about reemphasing this belief in the players in the hope that they go into games believing they can win. 

Caerleon RFC U13s 31 - 27 St Julians RFC

Tries

Howells (2), Watkins, Hayward, Morgan

Conversions

Duggan (1)

Men of the Match

Riley Hayward & Harri Morgan