Fixture

A last minute re-arrange fixture meant the Youth XV found themselves without five players due to work commitments and one player only able to join the team twenty minutes into game. This resulted in the young Magpies having to start the game with a bare 15 starting against a strong Emlyn squad. Due to the time taken to make the long trip to Ceredigion the team arrived shortly before kick-off and had little to no time to warm up but regardless of this the boys were keen to play. Emlyn showed there were intend on strong running rugby straight from the off and within 10 minutes Tumble found themselves two unconverted tries down. Tumble needed to rally and tighten up as Emlyn were dominant in all areas of play with a strong scrum, lineout and a good tackling defence. In fact it was fair to say it felt like it was going to be major one way traffic but this team work hard for each other and all encouraged each other to keep going led by Captain Kieran Jones. A big knock in the back then meant Daniel Davies had to leave the field injured but just as the coaching team were asking referee if they could drop to 14 a side on runs the late arriving Rhys Jones in perfect timing !!!! Strong Tumble attacking play was matched by strong defence but the Magpies would not slow and the next score was Tumble’s via typical forward  play when pack leader, Rhys Tobias powered his way over from short range in the 32th min. Half time score 10-5 to Emlyn.

Unfortunately, the restarting second half kick-off was gathered by a strong running back rower and he seemed to find gap after gap to break into the Magpies 22 before offloading to the supporting runner to score and make the score 17-5. Whilst it was a good looking try poor concentration and defence by Tumble had made it possible. The coaching team of Selwyn Morgan, Steffan Davies and Emlyn Phillips were convinced that if the boys could have held out and got another score it could of turned things in Tumble’s favour but unfortunately it wasn’t going to the case. Emlyn were finding themselves on the wrong side of the referee's whistle for most of the match for offsides and coming in at the side, often to stop Tumble's rolling phase play. The referee finally had enough, and a yellow card was shown. The one man numerical disadvantage didn’t stop Emlyn though and with a strong bench being used for the remainder of the second half it was a case of  the Magpies trying to hold out their opponents, which is exactly what they did showing again the resilience and character within the squad. Selwyn Morgan stated that most teams would have found themselves on the wrong end of a 50 pointer today, but the young Magpies kept to it, all of them came together without any arguments and put their bodies on the line time after time. It was a roll up the sleeves time and they did that to a man from 1 to 16 by tackling relentlessly all afternoon. Final score 36-5.

Man of the Match was given to the young Ethan McPherson – this lad hasn’t played rugby before this season since Under 12s but you would not of thought it with his tackling, counter rucking and general play. The MOTM award was an easy decision for coaching team.

Coaches Words – I’d like to play the game again with a full squad at our disposal. It was a good hard game against a fine team. Well done boys and best of luck to Newcastle Emlyn for the remainder of the season.

Ymlaen Y Piod