DRAGONS UNDER 18 24 RGC 1404 UNDER 18 15
At a cold yet dry Newbridge RFC,the Dragons Under 18s saw off their North Walian counterparts but only in the last 5 minutes of an absorbing and competitive affair. The RGC side put themselves under early pressure when from the kick-off the ball was turned over to the Dragons,who after what seemed to be countless phases of possesion foreced the ball over the line through Elliott Dee. Although the RGC side were to hit back via a Dion Jones penalty, the Dragons lead was extended 7 minutes from half-time when a quickly taken tap saw their lively scrum-half Joshua Davies force himself over from 5 metres out. Dragons Fly-half Ethan Davies adding the conversion as he had Dee's earlier score.
The second-half initially again saw the Dragons in control territorially,however a great break from RGC winger Llewellyn Edwards from within his own twenty-two took the visitors to just short of the home-sides try-line and although the ball was turned over,tremendous pressure led to a dropped ball over the try-line on which pounced Chris Holmes and with Dion Jones adding the conversion the gap between the 2 sides was down to just 4 points.It was now very much the RGC 1404 side who were in the ascendancy and 15 minutes later they took the lead when a neat kick from fly-half Lewis Barker found full-back Jones who rounded the defence to go in at the corner. Although he missed the conversion a similar miss from in front of the posts by Dragons replacement fly-half Niall Martin gave home that the RGC 1404 side might gain their second victory of the season. However it was not to be as Dragons flanker James Benjamin scorched in from 30 metres out to score close to the posts,and any hopes of a comeback were finally extinguished when Martin added a penalty with almost the last kick of the game.
Although disappointed to lose for the RGC 1404 side it shows how far they have come this year when they expect to win regional age-grade matches rather than merely compete in them.
RGC 1404 Under 18s final game of the season is at home to the Scarlets on 21st November at Eirias Parc.'
Hope that useful
Will
