Hot on the heels of their U14 and U16 Girls’ Hub teams reaching cup finals at Principality Stadium – the U16 team beat the Chargers 31-0 – and their youth side winning the WRU Clubs U18 Bowl title with a 31-14 win over Gowerton, it is now their 1st XV who take centre stage.
They certainly have a lot to live up to and a few of them have a score to settle after losing in the final of the WRU Youth Plate final against Penallta in 2019. Now they have a chance to redeem themselves when they meet Blaina in the Division 3 Cup final on Saturday, 6 April.
It will be very much a family affair with the coaching team headed up by Andrew Price, the team captained by his son, Jay Price at outside half, and the mascot being four-year-old Elijah Price-Huwale, grandson of Andrew. And watching on proudly from the stands will be the club’s long-serving former secretary and WRU referee, Gerry Price, Jay’s grandfather.
“It’s going to be a great day out for the boys and their families, but I have to admit that I’m more concerned about the league,” admitted Andrew Price.
“This is a one-off, never-to-be-forgotten experience that the players have worked hard to achieve, but as a club we want them to be as competitive as they can be playing at the highest possible level. That’s why gaining promotion from Division 2 East Central to Division 1 is so important.
“We’re doing alright in the league at the moment, sitting in third three points off the top, but only the top two teams go up. We drew with league leaders Penygraig last time out and there are four teams still in the running for the title.”
It took a gutsy performance in the semi-final to end Fairwater’s hopes of reaching the final at Llandaff in the last round, the Quins coming out on top 16-14, and now they get their shot at glory.
Andrew Price was part of the youth team coached at the club by the former WRU and then IRB, now World Rugby, chairman Vernon Pugh and left to play for almost a decade at Cross Keys. He returned to help out with the coaching at junior and youth team levels and has graduated up to the club’s senior side.
“We have a strong link with the Welsh speaking schools in Cardiff, like Plasmawr and Glantaf, through our mini junior section, CRICC, and there are a number of players who come home from university to play at weekends,” said Andrew Price.
“We also lose a fair few when they go to university, which is why we feel it’s important to climb as high as we can to provide the best standard of rugby as possible to attract players to join us.”
Prop replacement Aled Hill is the veteran of the side at 38, while back row man Gruff Lloyd is the younger brother of Scarlets and Wales star Ioan and Dragons Academy and Newport stand-off Jac. He followed them to Clifton College.
Scrum half Tobi Booth is a recruit from Pentyrch, while full back Iwan Burrows and hooker Jake O’Shea are teammates from the 2018 Glantaf school side.
