U14 & U16 Boys Rugby vs Llanfyllin
Both our U14 & U16 rugby teams enjoyed hard-fought wins this week against strong visiting Llanfyllin teams, both games action-packed and great entertainment for the watching pupils and parents in the crowd!
Our U14s delivered a much-improved performance from their previous outing vs Welshpool, defensively much more solid and showing much more cohesion across the park. The hard-working front five of Finn, Jacob, Kai, Alex and Will set the tone from the start with tireless work in the set-piece and in the tight, helping to create a solid platform for the backrow of Riley, Alfie and Shane to make lots of ground with ball in hand and to also make countless tackles in defence. The returning Elli Hyde at scrum half gave precision and pace to the Newtown attacks, allowing the midfield of Aiden, Dylan and Tyler lots of opportunities to get over the gain-line and to set up Newtown attacks out wide. The back three of Elijah, Morgan and Charlie were solid in defence and ran hard when given the chance. Fresh legs from the bench in Alfie, Caeden, Morgan, Ethan, Olly, Dan, Aaron, Jacob helped to keep the scoreboard ticking over, resulting in a 40 v 12 win, with a hat-trick of tries each for powerful number 8 Shane and athletic centre Tyler, with the remaining points coming from the reliable boot of Dylan Jones with 5 conversions.
Our U16s were made to work hard by their Llanfyllin counterparts in a physical and fast-paced match played in the best spirit by both teams. Llanfyllin opened the scoring after early pressure when their talented half-backs moved the ball wide, allowing their left wing to finish well in the corner. Newtown grew into the game with strong carries from the returning George Farrington and powerful number 8 Kyle, helping to create an opportunity for wing Haydn to show a clean pair of heels to the covering defence to score under the posts. Scrum half Oscar scored Newtown's second try after a series of good carries from Liam, Ali, Huw and James, allowing him to snipe over from close range, with Liam converting both tries. Llanfyllin scored another try out wide, however good defensive work from debutant wing Ryan, second row workhorses Will and Harry and hot-stepping full-back Dylan helped to keep it 14-10 to Newtown at half-time. In the second half, good work in the lineout from flanker Fin helped to set up a series of opportunities for powerhouse centre Kieron to make big holes in the Llanfyllin defence, scoring a grand solo-effort from 50 yards out. Substitutes Lennon and Brian came on for Ryan and hard-working prop Reuben to add fresh legs, helping to create further tries for George and Kyle, with Liam adding a further 2 conversions. Llanfyllin scored a third try to make the final score 33-17 to Newtown.
Well done to both sets of players and many thanks to Llanfyllin for coming over. Next up for both teams is Bro Caereinion at home next Wednesday!
