Fixture

With the season approaching, the coaches approached near neighbours and rivals, Caerleon RFC, to arrange a training match so that both teams could work on structure before the "real" games began. It was felt that Caerleon, who are always strong at our age group, would be a good barometer of where the team is and the session would be a good way of highlighting what the coaches needed to work on in the coming weeks.

Caerleon beat us twice last season, once more comfortably than the other, so it was pleasantly surprising to see us take an early lead straight from the kick off. Caerleon kicking down the throat of our resident speedster, Mitchell Watkins, who took advantage of the space afforded to him to race home for the opening score.

That set the tone for what became a competitive game. Further tries came from our backline with Caleb Higgs and Tay Smith going over after some good link up play from our forwards.

As mentioned, this was more of a training game than anything, with coaches allowed on to the field at scrum time to provide technical guidance, and it was most pleasing to see that the Young Saints really didn't need any. Credit for this must go to Kane Holloway and Liam Luckett for their excellent profiles and in particular to Keiron Addis, who played at second row and prop in his first game and didn't look out of place.

Another indiviual playing his first game was Cian Knights, who had joined the team a few weeks before and put in a barnstorming display of tackling that Ollie Griffiths and Karri Keddie would be proud of.

The match finished 4 all and the coaches were delighted with the performance of the entire team against a Caerleon side who, despite them being shorn of their usual 40 players from which to choose, are probably one of the strongest teams in the region.

Full Time Score

Caerleon RFC 20 - 20 Saint Julians RFC