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Page 1 of 2 TONDU YOUTH 29 – 16 PONTYPRIDD YOUTH This young Pontypridd side travelled to Tondu for a difficult friendly against a much older and more experienced side containing international forwards along with several Ospreys academy players.
Pontypridd were missing a number of key players including Mike Davies, Richard Powell, Lewis Egal and Lewis Williams, committed themselves really well throughout the match, but unfortunately never really got out of first gear during the game. Ponty made a terrible start, conceding two quick tries, the first thanks to some poor cover tackling by the usually strong back row and the second after a Ponty scrum lost against the head, giving Tondu an early 12-0 lead. Things went from bad to worse when Ponty lost one of their few big players, prop James Sullivan to injury 15 minutes into the game and as a result they were being totally dominated by the bigger Tondu pack. As the half wore on, Ponty did manage to show some glimpses of what they are capable of, with some strong drives from Dale Pugh and Alun Thomas that earned Ponty a penalty for fullback Rhys Simms to convert. This spurred Ponty on. Some sparkling play by fly half Lewis Smith and centre Dan Deardon, put the excellent Tom Newberry in space. Tom powered through he gap and fed a good pass to his centre partner Deardon, but the pass was deemed forward. Ponty were quick to resume the attack and the under pressure Tondu conceded another penalty for Simms to convert to drag the scores back to 12-6. but Tondu came back at Ponty and a powerful break by their international no. 8, superbly supported by his half back colleagues, saw their wing cross wide out for an outstanding unconverted try. Ponty were now desperate to get back in the game, so with the last move of the half, flyhalf Smith put Ponty Man of the Match Dan Deardon into the gap and his outstanding running caused havoc in the Tondu defence. Eventually their defence managed to bring down Dan, only for openside flanker Dafydd Gristock to continue the move, but unfortunately the final pass failed to go to hand and an opportunity to score was missed. The second half saw further changes for an already depleted Pontypridd, with both wings, Troake and Kingsbury injured in the first half, Ponty were forced to reshuffle, putting scrum half Rhys Ashman on one wing and reserve full back Max Padfield on the other. Sadly for Ponty the second half started as badly as the first, with Pontypridd failing to collect the kick off. This caused confusion in their defence and although for a second it seemed as though Ponty had secured the ball, a rushed pass close to the Ponty try line allowed a Tondu player to pounce on the loose ball for yet another unconverted try, to take the scores to 22 - 6. This error seemed to galvanise the Ponty boys, providing the wake up call they needed. With replacement prop Marc Jones having his best game of the season, Ponty were able to start winning some ball through the pack. Pontypridd started to use the ball well, twice winning quick ruck ball to set the dangerous midfield of Deardon and Newberry free on the right, but sadly with the try line beckoning, poor handling from the supporting back row players cost Ponty certain tries on both occasions. But at least Ponty were now starting to compete, and from a line out deep in the Tondu half No 8 Dean Maissey drove into the heart of the Tondu defence. With some excellent mauling, the pack drove flanker Gristock over for an unconverted try, to take the scores to 22-11. Buoyed by this, Ponty were quick to resume the attack and after a series of fouls deep in their half, the referee sin binned one of the Tondu centres. Fly half Lewis Smith took the resultant penalty quickly and demonstrating brilliant running skills, he danced his way through the Tondu defence for an impressive individual try that sadly went unconverted to take the score to 22-16. With just two minutes to go it looked like this very young Ponty side might snatch an unlikely win, despite their poor performance earlier in the match. With the clock ticking down, Ponty were trying to run the ball from everywhere in an attempt to unleash their dangerous centres. But playing this expansive rugby has it’s risks and sadly for Ponty a long miss pass to full back Simms was intercepted by one of the Tondu centres, who sprinted in under the posts for a converted try in the last move of the match. Final score of 29-16 to Tondu. This was a very disappointing overall performance by Pontypridd. The players and coaches know that this side is far better than the display they exhibited today. There were some brave and spirited individual performances from the midfield, Nathaniel Williams, Alun Thomas, along with replacements Marc Jones, Max Padfield and Liam Stacey. Unfortunately too many of the side seemed to be going through the motions this week and the side will need to step up considerably if they are to challenge Ystrad Rhondda in next Saturdays League match.
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