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Page 1 of 2 CHAMPIONS Pontypridd Youth (1) Win the League Pontypridd Youth (1) 16 – 11 Glamorgan Wanderers  In the final league match of the season, Pontypridd Youth (1) defeated their main title rivals Glamorgan Wanderers to clinch the BB League and promotion to the top division in only their second season of Youth rugby. This follows closely on the heels of Pontypridd Youth (2) winning the BH League last week, the future looks bright, the future looks black and white…
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Young Ponty hosted Glamorgan Wanderers from Ely Cardiff in a "Winner takes All" fixture in Division two of the Youth League. With Ponty on 31 points and the Wanderers on 30 this game would determine both the league champions and the promotion hopes for both sides who have ambitions for Division one rugby next year. Ponty had crashed to a disappointing defeat last week away in Ely and knew that they needed to improve significantly on last weeks performance if they were to take the honours. With Sardis Road unavailable due to repairs to the underpitch drains, the game was switched to the Cae Glas field in Hawthorn. Although soundly beaten last week, Ponty felt that they had the stronger front five, and if they could nullify the impressive Wanderers back row, that Ponty could dominate the game at forward, and then reduce the potency of the Wanderers back line. To support this, Sam Studley moved to his former position of No7 with wing Billy Waters taking his place at scrum half, and Alun Thomas stepped in at lock, to enable Ponty ot play four back row forwards in the pack. The early play of the game was dominated by defences, where neither side could break the other down, although some early driving line out's and mauls from the Ponty side suggested that their game plan might hold the key to the day. Both sides demonstrated some impressive tackling, and although the game was exciting, neither side seemed to be able to gain the upper hand. The Wanderers were first to score, and converted a simple penalty after Ponty had drifted offside. However rather than deflate Ponty, it seemed to instil in them the belief that if they kept driving through the forwards, eventually the Wanderers defence would crack. The opening for Ponty came around five minutes from the end of the first half. Great lineout work from hooker Sam Oliver and Aaron Atkins, saw Ponty drive their lineout deep into the Wanderers half. When the maul was stopped the Ponty forwards launched a series of impressive pick and drives, straight through the heart of the Wanderers defence, before Billy Waters broke to the blindside, and with Lewis Smith and Dan Dearden in support, quick hands put Ponty No 8 Dean Maisey in at the corner for the opening try that went unconverted. This try was a massive boost to Maisey, who hails from Ely himself, and had taken a lot of flak from the Wanderers players after last weeks defeat. Half time score Ponty 5 - Wanderers 3. The Second half saw Ponty really step up the pace, with the Wanderers pack struggling to cope with the powerful Ponty forward drives. It seemed inevitable that sooner or later they would concede a penalty in their attempt to stop the Ponty forwards, and when the chance came, Ponty fullback Rhys Simms came agonisingly close to extending Ponty's lead. However Ponty were not to be denied long, and after another impressive line out involving Ross Griffiths and Dean Maisey, Ponty again were able to use their big forwards to drive through the heart of the Wanderers pack and great support running from Sam Studley, Alun Thomas, Geraint Rowley and Marc Jones, saw the Wanderers defence in disarray, before unleashing the backs, where Lewis Smith put wing Hughes in for Ponty's second try. Simm's conversion attempt looked good but only one linesman flagged that the kick went over, so the referee ruled that the kick was missed. Ponty 10 - Wanderers 3. Ponty were quickly back on the attack and won two further penalties when the Wanderers were caught infringing in the tackle area. The first was hit narrowly wide, but Simms made no mistake with the second to take Ponty's lead to 13 -3. The Wanderers now started to fight back and poor Ponty discipline, saw the Wanderers win a series of penalties that resulted in the pack crashing over in the corner for a well deserved try that went unconverted.13 -8, however they were soon back on the scoreboard when Ponty were caught drifting offside and kicked the resulting penalty to take the score to 13-11. Ponty were not to be denied though and flyhalf Lewis Smith started to control the game, pinning the Wanderers deep in their half with some booming kicks, and when the Wanderers tried to run out of defence, magnificent tackling from Dan Dearden, Lewis Egal, Smith and emergency winger Dafydd Gristock, kept stopping every move in it's tracks. From one huge hit in midfield, Ponty were able to hack the spilled ball close to the Wanderers try line. Excellent chasing work from Sam Studley and Christian Hitt saw the Wanderers full back smashed down before he could kick to touch, and then great work at the ruck from Hitt Studley and Alun Thomas, saw Wanderers concede another penalty under their posts. This was a gift for a kicker of Simms standard and he stepped up to kick the final points of the game to seal a thrilling 16 - 11 win for Ponty, and send the Ponty team, supporters and coaching team ecstatic. This was a magnificent achievement for Ponty who had been bottom of the league at the start of November and facing relegation, before staging a miraculous recovery winning 10 of their next 11 league fixtures to secure both the League title and subject to WRU approval, promotion to Division one of the National youth leagues next season. This is a real credit to all the players, who reformed a Ponty Youth side from the successful under 16's side from two seasons ago, and have now gone from competing in Division 9 to winning promotion to Division 1 in only two full seasons. This was a real team performance and this week there were 22 man of the matches for Ponty youth on display, but this weeks honours go to "Ely Boy" Dean Maisey who along with his back row colleagues of Studley, Thomas and Atkins, was a lion in the heart of the Ponty defence and a thorn in the side of the Wanderers all game. Finally the Ponty squad and Coaches would like to thank Dan Dearden, Christian Hitt and Billy Waters who made their last appearances in a Youth shirt before graduating to Senior Rugby and we hope Paul John and the Chief will give all three lads the chance to show what they can do for Ponty Seniors in this Summers Squad trials. Good Luck Boys and thanks for everything you've done for the Youth. MATCH PHOTOS
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