By Tom Jameson U12 Manager
‘Friends, Romans, and the ‘Eagle of the North’
Caerleon; the last Roman outpost of the east and hiding place of the legion known as the Newport HSOB’s, witnessed the latest assault by one of the tribes of the Cardiff and Vale, the ‘Barbarian Hoards of the North’. Perhaps not the strongest representation of the Cardiff district this year but angry and determined enough after a poor run and hard lessons dished out in training. We attacked them on their back field, into the teeth of a keen wind and up a slight slope. But undeterred we caught them a little off gaurd. Last year we’d been sent packing to the tune of 45-14 by this same legion of Romans and a little complacent were they this time in their togas of blue and yellow, with their swords and their sandles. The ‘great unwashed ‘ of Llandaff North spat fire. Ewan Calder pounced on loose ball where it lay and played smartly around the fringes like never before. Archie, wealded his axe from number 8 and Morgan pushed and shoved. Behind the pack Gabriel took a more measured view, gliding passed defenders and from the rear Ben Yarwood ran intelligently as he stood in this week at Full Back. All progress was ours until disorganisation meant turnover ball after we’d made it to within 15m of their fortress. Then our lack of focussed training showed as we slipped off tackles against their main runner.
The Romans pressed for more and although a wild hack from our angry prop Dylan Booth gave another score we turned around to have the breeze at our backs just 12-0 down. The ‘Barbarian Hoards of Llandaff North’ banged away at the Roman line. We had them penned in and into the wind the Romans had no escape by air. Robert made a break, and again Ben Yarwood cut the line but history tells us the Romans were a resilient lot. They would not yield. Even when finally we had 3 to 1 overlap on their left flank we spilt the ball. Once again too anxious, once again not training ground drilled enough. All pressure was ours and it was a valliant effort against the organised ‘Tortoise Shell’ defence. It had been much improved on last time we’d met and we’d represented our district bravely against one of the strongest legions in Gwent. Ultimately though we were sent to lick our wounds and learn to be more organised and calmer with victory and the opposition line begging. The Romans prevailed however, the Barbarian Hoards of Llandaff North sent homeward to think again!
Result:- Newport HSOB U12’s 17 – 0 Llandaff North U12’s
Man of the Match:- B. Yarwood
Manager’s player of the day:- T. Clements
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