Treorchy deny Rumney slice of history
Defending WRU National Youth Cup champions Rumney were denied a slice of history when they were held to a 10-10 draw by Treorchy in the WRU National Youth Cup at Principality Stadium.
Rumney’s brave bid to make history by successfully defending their WRU National Youth Cup title hit stubborn resistance. The champions had a try by replacement Nathan Renshaw to thank for taking a share of the spoils. Outside half Reagan Mahoney added the conversion and also kicked a penalty.
It has still been a great season for the Cardiff club, who go into their final fixture against St Peter’s this weekend having won 16 games, drawn the cup final and lost only twice to Pontypridd. A try by Curtis Greenslade, with a conversion from Cavan Slade and penalty from Ethan Dunning, kept the Young Zebras on equal terms.
It was a step up for Treorchy from last year, when they won the WRU Bowl, and they still have a Blues Cup semi-final against Builth Wells to look forward to as the Blues Division BB title also looks set for The Oval. Last season they won the Blues Division BC crown and also added the Taff Rhondda District Cup.
In the Bowl final, recently reformed St Jospeh’s HSOB did exceptionally well to hold onto an Ystrad Rhondda side that has remained unbeaten since a one point defeat in their opening game of the season at Llantwit Fardre. Nathan Williams kicked all the points for St Joes with three penalties before they were finally beaten 13-9.
Ystrad conjured up tries through Jesse Brabon and Reuben Edwards, while Harry Williams added a penalty to complete the scoring to take the title.
Former Wales and Ospreys back row star Jonathan Thomas was on the touchline supporting his first club in the Plate final as Pembroke launched the busiest and most exciting week in the history of Pembroke RFC. The Youth team were the first side from the club to grace the Principality Stadium and the 1st will follow in their footsteps on Sunday when they meet Porthcawl in the WRU National Bowl final.
Tondu were 12-0 ahead after 25 minutes, but Pembroke came back into the contest in the second half and only trailed 19-12 with 20 minutes to go. Joe Allen eventually ran in a fourth try for Tondu to earn them the title with a 29-19 win.
No 8 Billy Kinnear grabbed the first try for Pembroke and then outside half and skipper Tom Harding-Jones crossed twice and kicked two conversions for a match tally of 14 points.