Ponty Youth league campaign off to a winning start

Pontypridd Youth opened their Blues A League campaign with a home win against Mountain Ash on Saturday 9th September.

The result built on the positive pre-season performances shown against Pontarddulais Youth and Ysgol Glantaf.

The early exchanges were full of endeavour with both teams playing open positive rugby although guilty of trying to force the play and committing errors. Ponty and Mount eventually settled in to their rhythm and pushed hard to create scoring opportunities.

Pontypridd  were first on the score board with a penalty following an infringement at the breakdown. This was followed shortly after with a try scored following a turn over, with both backs and forwards showing deft handling skills to get the ball over the line near the posts.

Mount worked hard to get on the score board and following a period of sustained pressure were rewarded with a kickable penalty but Ponty striking back just before half time with a penalty of their own to register an interval lead of 13pts to 3.

The second half saw both teams increase the intensity of their play with Mount having two early opportunities to close the gap through penalty kicks but unable to take advantage. Ponty played through the phases and crossed the line with a well worked try out wide to extend their lead, only for the visitors to hit back to score under the sticks.

The final quarter of the game saw both teams create opportunities only to be denied by determined scramble defences. Ponty eventually broke down Mount’s resistance in the closing minutes, registering a 27pts to 10 victory following a hard fought encounter.