Fresh from victory in a tight encounter up in Porth we were summoned to attend Heath Park to meet our old friends St.Joseph’s. I’d heard of ‘T in the Park’, and even the thought of ‘Tea in the Park’ was relatively appealing yet this was more ‘Breakfast in the Park’ with an ungodly kick off time of 10.15am meaning our sleepy headed ‘Sunday Casuals’ were asked to meet on the Heath at 9.30am, with porridge and bacon and egg still on their junior whiskers! It was bleak, and a cruel wind cut its way across the pitch but welcomed we were by the hosts, long time our comparable adversary; the Honey Pot Hoops of the Heath however were no match now for our U13 brand.
For the first time this season we found a team to clash with our dashing new kit, predominantly amber in a district of teams that like to parade in black. But there the similarities ended. Sam Thomas superbly led our well balanced 15 man game. St.Joe’s pre-match warm up hinted of fierce tackling but when the whistle blew their pack were out-muscled. We played with the slope, and a breeze and Dylan Bignell from Second Row today put a new fear in the hosts with his tenacious running. When loose ball appeared Samuel Griffin swooped twice to score on both occasions. We quickly established a dominance and Archie Baxter rolled back the years with a pick from the number 8 position to run in from 40yds. It was a blast from his crazy U10/U11 days; days difficult to replicate now in the cut and thrust of U13 rugby but this was a dominant day. Louis added a 4th before half time jinking in from wing to pass static Honey Pot backs. In an uphill second half we continued to push the throttle. Ben Hembury smashed the line from Full Back to show again his dramatic match winning move from the Porth game. It was a superbly timed pass again from Gabriel Bertelli and to which the cold and statuesque St.Joe’s defenders had no answer. There followed swallow diving efforts by Ben and Archie to add salt in the home wounds and all the while Chris added 4 good kicks to take us into the 40’s and notably to 2pts more than the Blues Cup victory by the ‘Boys from CF3’ over this same opposition. An interesting comparison to draw!
A happy and dominant day, expressive 15 man rugby, ….Breakfast in the Park for the Sunday Casuals!
St. Joseph’s U13’s 0 – 43 Llandaff North U13’s
Tries:- S.Griffin (2) A.Baxter (2) B.Hembury (2) L.Llewellyn
Conversions:- C. Thompson (4)
Man of the Match:- D.Bignell
Tom Jameson
U13 manager
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