Ponty Youth battle to victory over Beddau

Pontypridd Youth 20 : 12 Beddau Youth

Pontypridd Youth went into the unknown in their opening Blues Premiership fixture on Saturday 7th September, taking on  local rivals Beddau at Sardis Road. The two sides had not met in league action for almost four years and this was to prove a stiff test for the Ponty youngsters.

The game was played in near perfect conditions and started with a bang for Pontypridd with hard running flanker Josh Mortinson scoring a blistering forty yard try from a shortened line-out just two minutes in.

The next twenty minutes were all Beddau with the boys in green and gold bagging two well worked tries despite some dogged Ponty defence. This shocked Pontypridd into action, a period of sustained pressure allowing centre Cavan Davies to slice through from short range to score a try which was converted by scrum half Kiean Richards.  This was quickly followed by a well organized driving line-out by the home pack, flanker Dylan John getting over the whitewash. Continued Ponty pressure saw Beddau concede a kickable penalty which Kiean Richards converted to put his team in at the interval 20pts to 12 ahead.

The second half was a hard fought on, a number of yellow cards shown by the referee to both sides which made it a stop start affair. In true local derby style no quarter was given or asked in what was developing into a battle of the defences. There was to be no further scoring in an intense struggle, with Ponty holding out for an important victory.

This was an excellent opening to the league campaign for Pontypridd, in which Beddau certainly played their part making it a great spectacle for the sizable crowd, and a good advert in general for youth rugby.

Next up for Ponty Youth will be a tough trip to the capital to face last season’s Welsh Youth Cup champions Cardiff Metropolitan University.