Injury Hit Youth - 09/03/2010
Jeff Pick reports:
With a bit of an injury crisis at the moment we felt that things should start to get better on sat, but we were hit again. Ross Pritchard and Rhys Haines pulling out during the warm up, Ross with a niggling shoulder problem and Rhys feeling faint. Added to our already walking wounded we fielded a young side in this cup game against, to be fair, a very strong Ystrad side.
The boys started with a real bang and raced into a 14-0 lead thanks to tries by Fred White and Scott Malone. But gradually Ystrad got back into the game largely down their driving line-out, but we still went in at half time 14-12 to the good.
The second half however belonged to the away team as influential players Scott Malone and Keegan Rees came off depleting our side even further, and we ended up with 38 14 loss that sees us exit the Taff Rhondda cup.
The positives to come out of the afternoon were the first year youth players that stepped in to this very competitive fixture and performed with great effort. The skills they showed will stand them in good stead over the coming youth seasons and their physicality will get better with their natural growth.

Tries Galore for Nines and Tens - 07/03/2010
JUNIORS
UNDER 9
Rhydyfelin 10 Llanharan 45
Llanharan tries: Lloyd Gregory 3, Ieuan Pring 2, Powell Brown,
Keiron Thoams, Christopher Osborne, Leon Burton.
UNDER 10
Maesteg Celtic 0 Llanharan 30
Llanharan tries: Thomas Roderick 2, Natasha Jones 2, Ryan Waters, Liam Bradford.
Player of the Match: Thomas Roderick.
Bridgend Ravens 5 Llanharan 40
Llanharan tries: Natasha Jones 3, Ashley Bissett 2, Liam Bradford 2, Ryan Waters.
Player of Match: Liam Bradford.

Preparations Hampered - 01/03/2010
LLANHARAN YOUTH 15 PONTYCLUN YOUTH 32
Llanharan did not have the best of preparation going into this friendly with premier club Pontyclun.
Their back division was severely depleted by withdrawals and unavailability, star man Harley Thomson a typical example, a Welsh trial an indication of his worth to the side.
And to compound matters further, another powerful performer, Fred White, pulled up injured in the warm up.
Even so the young replacement backs tried hard and learned a lot from the experience whilst the pack again gave nothing away against the visiting eight.
Coach Jeff Pick paid tribute to them, noting that it augured well that only Sam Llewellyn and Zach O’Driscoll would be moving up to seniors next year.
Llanharan actually took the lead, drives by Rhys Haines, Sam Pick, and Scott Malone creating the position from which scrum half Ross Pritchard found space on the narrow side for a corner try that sixteen year old number ten Chris Jones converted superbly.
Pontyclun drew level with a try of their own before Jones again pushed his side in front with a penalty.
But Pontyclun had an outstanding set of backs and demonstrated fine handling skills as they twice ran the ball back at the Dairymen in the minutes before half time for 22-10 lead at the turn around.
With Josh Jones forced off back row man Scott Malone moved into the centre and showed impressive ability in the middle of the field.
And there seemed hope for the team as Sam Llewellyn scored his first try for the youth going over from a lineout.
With the pack strong, a sound kicking game, and Reegan Rees making runs, Llanharan looked as though they might cause an upset.
However, once more it was Pontyclun who struck with deadly effect from turn over ball and with kicks it was victory to the Badgers.
However, as Jeff Pick said, the young team could only benefit from taking on premiership opposition, but he did lament the fact that on the three such fixtures this season he had been denied anything like a full strength squad and, lacking depth in numbers for some positions, it had limited the team’s effectiveness.

Nines Lose - 28/02/2010
UNDER NINES
LLANHARAN 15 BEDDAU 25
No scorers available.

Youth end good week with another Win - 21/02/2010
ST PETERS TOUTH 5 LLANHARAN YOUTH 15

With Tuesday night’s game being so tight it was important for the players who didn’t get on the field then to get game time against St Peters, so we made 7 changes to the starting line up and 1 positional change with Rhydian Worgan moving to centre from the wing. But with it being a league game we still felt our younger players would have enough ability to do a job and keep us on top of the table.
And so it proved as we came through a good week for us with a 15-5 win.
The game started with a bit of a flat edge to our play, after Tuesdays high some of our senior players finding it hard to get the right frame of mind for the game. Eventually after an early shock as the lively St Peters scrum half nipped in for the opening try we got into our stride. Within minutes Chris Williams had slotted over a long range penalty and we seemed to grow from then. With mistakes and infringements halting our game flow frustration started to set in until a series of drives and some quality passing saw classy centre Keegan Rees slice through the "Rocks" defence to get us in front, Chris adding the extras to give us a 10-3 half time lead.
The second half was about establishing field position to launch attacks from, but we found it hard and there were some interesting refereeing decisions particularly at the scrum. With our front row driving St Peters back regularly we were penalised on 7 occasions for decisions that seemed to favour the weaker scrum. From one such penalty St Peters tried to clear their lines but failed to find touch. With speedy full back Fred White on the counter attack he beat a man and fed Keegan Rees on the half way at pace, Keegan attacked their mid field and with a great bit of skill he made a perfect pass to young winger Alex Hughes. Alex had a lot to do but with a powerful handoff and burst for the line we took the lead to 15-5.And that proved to be the final score.
With some big league and cup games on the horizon it was pleasing to see the younger members of our squad get quality game time but also important to rest some of our "big guns".

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