In beautiful sunshine 41 teams from all corners of Wales took to the turf on Wednesday (May 7th) to display some exceptional tag rugby skills in both the U14 and U18 age groups.
Taffs Well, the home of Welsh Women’s rugby, stepped into the breach when the event had to be moved from the Millennium Stadium due to pitch wear and tear. Peter Flood, club chairman, was delighted to offer the facilities and the club and staff were superb hosts as always.
Leading up to this finals day, qualifying competitions were held in each unitary authority with a total of 120 secondary schools taking part. The winners from each UA at U14 and U18 levels were then invited to the finals.
The day kicked off at 10.30am and games were played continuously on four pitches right through to 3.00pm with a total of 86 pool games being played. The U14 pool winners meeting in the semi-finals were all West teams bar one: Caerphilly (Newbridge Comprehensive) v Carmarthenshire (Ysgol Gyfun Bro Myrddin) and Ceredigion (Penweddig) v Pembrokeshire (Ysgol y Preseli).
Both matches were superb in terms of skill but West prevailed and Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire went through to the final. This was another closely fought match with tries being scored at alternate ends of the pitch, but Pembrokeshire dug deep and came out on top winning by six tries to four.
The U18 fixtures were closely watched by Kylie Wilson, Wales Women U20 Coach; Sophie Bennett, Women’s High Performance Manager and Jason Lewis, Wales Senior Head Coach. Again, some outstanding rugby was played by all schools. In the end, the semi-finalists were Ceredigion (Cardigan) v Taff (Bryncelynnog) and Caerphilly (St Cenydd) v Gwynedd (Ysgol Syr Hugh Owen).
The final between Taff and Gwynedd brought the only controversy of the day with the time keeper mistakenly blowing up after 6 minutes rather than 8. Both schools agreed to play the extra 2 minutes with Taff winning 6 tries to 3.
In each of the pool games the referee nominated a player of the game. These votes were collated and the players with the most votes were awarded ‘Player of the tournament’. These awards went to Angharad James from Ysgol y Preseli (Pembrokeshire) for the U14s and Rhian Humphries from Coleg Powys for the U18s.
Thanks must go to the referees and volunteers who ensured the day ran smoothly, to Taffs Well RFC for their hospitality and to all the rugby development officers who organised school coaching sessions and their qualifying tournaments. Pictures are available from http://www.dephoto.co.uk/
