Another Prize for Youth - 16/05/2010
TAFF RHONDDA MERIT CUP FINAL
LLANHARAN YOUTH 24 TONYREFAIL 10
Llanharan Youth capped a fine season with this win against Tonyrefail at Beddau, adding the Merit Cup to the league title already captured.
Captain Zach O’Driscoll was one of the try scorers, Rhydian Worgan and Jordan Jones also getting touch downs and Sam Pick having one disallowed.
Chris Williams converted all three and also put over a penalty.

Enjoyable Friendly - 09/05/2010
Llanharan Youth 20 Bromsgrove 26
This was an enjoyable friendly at the Dairy with the English team, under the charge of former Llanharan centre Mark Seymour, proving popular visitors.
Home coaches Jeff Pick and Kevin Jones used the occasion to give game time to all their squad ahead of the Taff Rhondda Merit Cup final against Tonyrefail and declared the use of rolling replacements a worthwhile exercise.
Ethan Williams, Jordan Jones and Scott Jones crossed the line, Scott adding a penalty and conversion.

Youth through to merit Cup final - 09/05/2010
TAFF RHONDDA MERIT CUP SEMI FINAL
LLANHARAN YOUTH 12 YSTRAD RHONDDA YOUTH 10
On paper this should have been victory for the Ystrad Rhondda side who play in a higher level of the Blues region and had defeated the home team 38-14 in a cup match earlier in the season.
But a game that served up a fairly sterile first half exploded into incident packed action after half time, with Zach O’Driscoll’s men outstanding in their big hearted defence, frequently knocking back bigger ball carriers.
Harley Thomson’s boot hit over for penalties to pave the way fro victory against the two tries scored by Alex Bailey in the first half and Carl Williams in the second, but there was a dramatic end to the game.
It began with an Ystrad head butt under the nose of referee Justin Williams, the offence instantly triggering a mass brawl that took some time to control;. When calm was restored the Merthyr official, aided by the observations of his touch judges, issued red cards to three men from each side.
Llanharan were 12-10 up, the game about to enter stoppage time and there was yet more tension as in the tenth minute of the added on period Ystrad broke up field and were awarded a 40 metres penalty. It was the last kick of the game and would have won the tie for the Gelligaled outfit, but Alex Webber looked on agonisingly as his kick drifted wide and Llanharan were through to meet Tonyrefail in the final.
Late arrival Webber was a second half replacement after failing to make the kick off and orchestrated much of his team’s play, but he was unable to rectify a glaring deficiency of the side’s inability to capitalise on kicks – in the first half a conversion under the posts was missed and straight forward penalties ignored in favour of field position.
To be fair to Llanharan, when they were in possession they looked to have far more subtlety than the opposition, typified by Wales Under 18 cap Thomson’s second half penalty that came after a dangerous attack in which Chris Williams and Scott Malone were prominent.
And so this gutsy set of players can now add a cup final appearance to their achievement of winning their league, a fine season by any standard.
Llanharan : Harley Thomson, Rhydian Worgan, Keegan Rees, Paul Songhurst, Alex Hughes, Chris Williams, Ross Pritchard, Sam Llewellyn, Sam Pick, Rhys Haines, James Langdon, Ioan Thomson, Lloyd Glass, Scott Malone, Zach O’Driscoll.
Reps: Gethin Cashmore, James Hughes, Owain Howe, Jamie Williams, Scott Jones, Daniel Burton.
(Coach’s report to follow)

Juniors do well in Tonyrefail tournament - 03/05/2010

TONYREFAIL TOURNAMENT
U7
Llanharan 10 Porth 10
Llanharan 5 Tonyrefail 10
Llanharan 0 Pontyclun 40
Llanharan Player of the tournament jack Dauncey
U8
Llanharan 5 Pontyclun 20
Llanharan 10 Tonyrefail 20
Llanharan 5 Porth 15
Llanharan Player of the tournament Jake Turnbull
Well done boys all played well
U9
Llanharan 20 Gilfach Goch 5
Llanharan Try scorers were: Ryan Morgan, Lloyd Gregory 2, Leon Burton.
Llanharan 10 Tonyrefail 5
Llanharan Try scorers were: Chris Osborne, Leon Burton.
Llanharan 15 Beddau 5
Llanharan Try scorers were: Lloyd Gregory 2, Leon Burton
U9 section winners - Llanharan u9; well done !
U 11
Llanharan 35 Porth 0
Llanharan Try scorers were: Ashley Bissett, Rhys Morgan, Jamie-lee Brown, Jordan Bissett, William Osborne, Thomas Perkins,
Llanharan Man of the match: William Osborne
Llanharan 0 Tonyrefail 5
Llanharan Man of the match was Ashley Bissett
Llanharan 15 Gilfach Goch 5
Llanharan Try scorers were: Ashley Bissett, Jordan Bissett 2)
Man of the match was Jordan Thyson
U11s came 2nd overall in the tournament and won the fair play trophy
Well done!
William Osborne had a trip to hospital with a bump on the head, but happily after an x ray all was fine
The Juniors have a presentation eve on the 15th May at 6 and rugby training starts back on the 8th June
REPORTS BY REBECCA TRIGG

YOUTH ARE CHAMPIONS - 02/05/2010
LLANHARAN YOUTH 21 ST JOSEPHS YOUTH 8
Llanharan Youth secured the win they needed to claim the champions title in their respective section of the Cardiff Blues league.
It was far from easy for Zach O’Driscoll’s team but tries from Gethin Cashmore and Lewis Midgely gave them the edge, with Chris Williams adding a conversion and two penalties.
Tonight (Wednesday) they face a tough task as they take on Ystrad Rhondda in the Taff Rhondda Merit semi final at the Dairyfield (7.15)

.
Report by Jeff Pick, Coach
We managed to win our league with not the best performance of the season but one of real character. Indeed after we had played our first league game back in September at Rhiwbina we wondered whether we had done the right thing to move up a level. On that day at the final whistle when we had been mauled 38-13 we had a sit down and an honest chat about the need to step up and improve in all facets of our training and play.
And we must have hit home with the right message as we have gone on and won all league games since the opening day defeat culminating in winning the league title on sat.
As mentioned the performance wasn’t what we would have liked but in St Joseph’s we had a team that could have won the league themselves had they turned us over. So there where some great scenes at the end of the game with champagne corks flying everywhere.
The game started with us falling foul of the referee from the kick-off. Zach O’Driscoll putting a huge hit on the ball receiver in what looked to be a perfectly timed tackle but the ref. deemed it an early dangerous tackle and that set the tone for the half. We dominated at scrum and line-out but couldn’t make the most of our numerous line breaks to get the scoreboard ticking. With that and our indiscipline at the break down our momentum kept faltering and so our frustrations grew. Out-side half Chris Williams kicked an early penalty to get ourselves in front but from the restart we again infringed at the contact area and St Joes levelled at 3-3.
As stated our set piece was solid all game and from a penalty Chris kicked us to a line-out just in our opponents 22.Jordan Jones won the line-out and we drove a full 20 metres for Gethin Cashmore to crash over and get the first try of the game. What followed was our best period of the game with wave after wave of attack. It wasn’t long before some good phase play and slick hands sent right wing Lewis Midgely flying over in the corner. A touch line conversion from Chris made the scores 15-3 at half time.
We spoke about discipline and composure at half time but still we made the game hard for ourselves by repeated giving away needless penalties and the second became a bit of a slog. A shame as a good crowd had turned up to cheer us to help us get that vital win. We managed to knock over another 2 penalties in the second half but the boys where disappointed to concede a try in final stages that left the final score 21-8 in our favour. A special mention for our skipper Zach O’Driscoll who gave a captains performance at various times in the game playing in the front row, second row, flanker and no8.
Also a big thank you to photographer Ceri Thorne for capturing the memorable scenes during the day and also thank you to all the parents they sponsored the game with liquid refreshments.
WELL DONE BOYS FROM THE COACHES.

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