Blues South face a trip to the Scarlets looking for their second win after an impressive opening performance against the Dragons. Meanwhile, their regional partners Blues North travel to the Ospreys who themselves secured a narrow win over the Dragons last time out.
It will be a tough test for Blues North as they face the trip west after the Ospreys responded to their opening defeat to the Scarlets with a gritty 7-13 win away at the Dragons.
Despite trailing 7-3 at half-time, two second-half tries from Ben Davies and Regan Grace saw the Ospreys prevail in what was a low-scoring game at Tredegar.
And while both sides face difficult games, Blues Performance Manager Richard Hodges believes they could be the start of better things for some of the regions’ players.
“We have set ourselves the target of getting 15 players from the North and the South combined in the Wales U16 squad and to get there we have got to perform on away trips to difficult places like this,” he said.
“This is as tough as it gets. It’s all about the development of the players at this age, more so than the winning but it’s easier to develop in a winning side. The emphasis is on continuity and running with the ball in hand.
“If we don’t get there (the 15 player target) it’s not the be all and end all but it’s the next stage of the boys’ development and we’ve got to make sure they perform in these types of games.”
The excellent start to the season has pleased Hodges with both the North and the South starting their preparations for the season back in mid-June and he will be hoping for more of the same this week.
Meanwhile, Ospreys U16 head coach David Jones is expecting a rough ride against Blues North.
“We always put the Blues games down as one of our toughest,” he said.
“We were poor in our first game and we had a huge amount of improvement last time against the Dragons so we’ll see if that’s enough.”
In the only U16 fixture to be played over the weekend the Dragons got their first win of the competition with a comfortable 32-5 win over RGC 1404.
Early tries from wing James Scarfi and centre Patric Lewis gave the Dragons a quick 10-0 lead before George Gasson went over.
Wing Sam Jones responded with a try for RGC before Conner Edwards put the Dragons further clear after half-time.
Fly-half Josh Malson added the conversion and when Lewis and Edwards both added a second try apiece, the game was up for RGC.
