Road to Principality 2022: U18 Girls National Plate
In the second game of the final day’s action, Ceirw Nant and Cardiff Quins faced each other in a nail-biting match for the U18s National Cup with non stop action from start to finish.
Ceirw Nant made a strong start to the match, putting in some huge carries from the pack. Pushing their opponents back, a solid take from Erin Evans opened the scoreing with a try.
Cardiff Quins went on the attack in the next stage of play and ploughed their way through the phases to reach Ceirw Nant’s 22. Taking it quickly off the back of a penalty Georgia Morgan smashed her way through to level the scores.
A nice passage of interplay followed from Cardiff Quins backs who sent the ball into the hands of Gabby Healan who raced clear for the score, Mya Dixon adding the extras.
Battling their way back, Ceirw Nant carried hard to gain the possession in their opponent’s half. Recycling the ball well a quick offload to Ffion Williams sent her over the line to narrow the scores.
Quins answered back almost immediately, gathering the ball from the restart to run out wide and put Georgia Morgan in for the try with Dixon slotting the extras.
Just before half time Ceirw Nant’s Evans went over for the brace to narrow the score to 15-19 at the break.
Coming out for the second half, Cardiff Quins looked for the score early on, with Healan going over the line for the brace to extend their lead. But Cardiff Quins were dealt a blow moments later with a yellow card to Dixon for a high tackle leaving Ceirw Nant with the player advantage.
Running it quickly, Net Metcalfe powered over the line for the try, converting her own score to make it 22-24 in Cardiff Quins favour.
As the game entered its final few minutes, Ceirw Nant had the opportunity to go ahead with a penalty but Metcalfe’s attempt just fell short to keep their opponents ahead. But her chance came seconds later with a penalty in line with the posts which Metcalfe slotted to take the lead.
But Cardiff Quins fought until the very end and ran the ball back into their opponents half with a good passage of play putting Grace Bellamy over the line to take back the lead at 25-29
To finish off a thrilling match between the two sides, Ceirw Nant came back to within inches of the try line but a penalty against them as the clock turned red crowned Cardiff Quins the champions.