Bridgend Athletic, who beat fellow Ospreys set-up Waunarlwydd (26-3) in the Aberavon final in May, have been drawn at home against last year’s WRU National Youth League winners Pontypool United, while Waunarlwydd travel to one of last season’s National Youth League semi-finalists, Rumney.
Losing National Youth League finalists, Bonymaen, have a home tie against Pontyclun while Nant Conwy, the otherYouth League semi-finalist, host Haverfordwest. Last year’s Webb Ellis Cup semi-finalists Ystrad Rhondda and Merthyr Tydfil travel to Blackwood and Ynysybwl respectively.
Four teams qualified through a preliminary round – Tondu beat Carmarthen Quins 29-19, the combined Builth Wells / Gwernyfed team drew away at Crymych 8-8 which sent them through as the away team, Llandovery beat Glynneath 30-12 and Caernarfon beat Mold 16-13.
Waunarlwydd Youth Secretary Paul Charlton said, “We are really looking forward to this Cup game. We beat Rumney in the quarters last year so I’m sure they will be up for the return match.
“We are unbeaten with two League wins out of two so far this season against Newport HSOB and Maesteg so if we continue along those lines, we will be very happy.
“Five of our players have stepped up to senior rugby since last season but we are now running two youth teams so we are confident we can cover a few injury worries we have ahead of the game.
“It’s always daunting to go away and we have never played at Rumney before so it’s unknown territory but we are looking forward to the challenge.”
Mark Davies, Youth Secretary of Bridgend Athletic, current Webb Ellis Cup title holders said, “It should be a cracking first round game with it being Cup winners against League champions.
“Sixteen of our senior youth players have now moved on – including two, Rhys Webb and Phil Price, who are now playing Premiership rugby for Bridgend. So we have a young side this season with no shortage of talent but we lack some of the experience we had last season.
“We played Pontypool United away three weeks ago and were defeated. They took a large lead in the first half and we had to play catch-up rugby but we are looking forward to the return match in the Cup competition.
“It will be a tough ask to defend our title and we possibly have the toughest match this Saturday but if we get past Round One anything can happen but there are a lot of good teams around this season like Bonymaen, Merthyr and Mumbles.”
Bridgend Athletic have a new Head Coach in former Aberavon, Bridgend and Pyle front row Anthony Woodward who partners club President Phil Rees.Â
target=_blank>Click Here for Webb Ellis Youth Cup Round 1 Fixtures (to be played on Saturday October 27th)
