Pontypridd 26 vs Sardis 7’s 7

Sat 5th August, 12:00, Sardis Road

Sevens Tournament

The Senior Leg of the Sardis 7s – Saturday 5^th August

Friday 4th to Sunday 6th August 2023 heralded another successful three-day Sardis 7s event. On Saturday 5th August a mixture of local clubs and invitational sides came together to take part in the Senior Leg of the tournament, and as in 2022, the High Motive Commandos were representing Pontypridd RFC. The order of play/results were as follows –

Match 1 – High Motive Commandos 7-7 Cynon Crusaders

Match 2 – Durbins Devils 35-0 Cilfynydd

Match 3 – St Peters 14-5 Llantwit Fardre

Match 4 – Wrong Turn 5-12 The Students

Match 5 – Caldicot 0-12 High Motive Commandos

Match 6 – Cynon Crusaders 26-0 Llantwit Fardre

Match 7 – St Peters 5-12 Caldicot

Match 8 – Durbins Devils 14-5 The Students

Match 9 – Llantwit Fardre 5-21 High Motive Commandos

Match 10 – Wrong Turn 7-10 Cilfynydd

Match 11 – Cynon Crusaders 10-7 St Peters

Match 12 – Llantwit Fardre 19-10 Caldicot

Match 13 – High Motive Commandos 26-0 St Peters

Match 14 – Durbins Devils 29-0 Wrong Turn

Match 15 – Cynon Crusaders 21-5 Caldicot

Match 16 – Cilfynydd 7-17 The Students

Match 17, Plate semi-final 2 – Caldicot 5-17 Cilfynydd *(Llantwit Fardre received a bye in the first semi-final)

Match 18, Cup semi-final 1 – High Motive Commandos* 10-5 The Students (*Commandos through after extra-time golden point score)

Match 19, Cup semi-final 2 – Cynon Crusaders 10-7 Durbins Devils

Match 20, Shield Final – St Peters 15-5 Wrong Turn

Match 21, Plate Final – Llantwit Fardre 10-7 Cilfynydd

Match 22, Cup Final – High Motive Commandos 26-7 Cynon Crusaders

Cup Final Report:

Cynon Crusaders kicked off, the rain had passed but conditions were still very breezy. The match started fairly evenly before some frantic play on halfway, some good work at the ruck by Kris Parker and Cai James secured possession and the ball was switched back infield and from the base of a ruck, 40 metres out, Joe Miles picked up and ran in unopposed to give High Motive an early 7-0 lead.

Cynon got themselves back in the contest straight away working themselves up field. They earned a penalty 10 metres out attacking the Pwllgwaun End of the ground, tapped and went, and a few phases later crashed over under the posts for the try. Cynon restarted after their try – a clever grubber-kick kick-off and they regained possession, only for some good work over the ball at the ruck from the Commandos earned them the penalty. The ‘home side’ took it quickly and Player of the Tournament Ryan Wilkins, who bagged himself 7 tries throughout the afternoon showed good pace to score from long range. The Cup Final finished with the James brothers bagging tries – firstly Cally, on his return to action following injury before younger brother Cai got on the end of a lovely floated pass to finish well and secure the Cup for the second consecutive year for High Motive Commandos.

The High Motive Commandos squad was as follows:

1. Kristian Parker (c). 2. Joe Miles. 4. McCauley Rowley. 6. Cally James. 7. Cai James. 8. Curtis Greenslade. 10. Harvey Nash. 11. Liam Lloyd. 12. Joseph Scrivens. 13. Dale Stuckey. 14. Ryan Wilkins. 15. Josh Phillips. Morgan Bosanko and Garyn Smith (both technical support).

It’s also worth noting that some other players either directly linked to Pontypridd RFC or featured for the Club last season also represented some other sides admirably throughout the afternoon. These were – Sam Hayman, Aled Ward, Iestyn Griffiths, Ceri Morris, Will Keep, Ewan Skuse and Niko Matawalu.

The Senior Leg: Shield Winners – St Albans RFC, Plate Winners – Llantwit Fardre RFC, Cup Champions – High Motive Commandos and High Motive’s Ryan Wilkins was named Player of the Tournament.

The Youth Leg of the Sardis 7s – Friday 4^th August

The Youth Leg of the tournament got the weekend’s action started on Friday 4th August. The Youth teams, being the future of all their respective clubs’ senior sides, all did themselves proud.

The winners in each competition – Plate Winners were Pontypridd Youth whilst Merthyr Youth were crowned Cup Champions.

The Youth Leg: Plate Winners – Pontypridd Youth, Cup Champions – Merthyr Youth and Merthyr’s Leon Caviel was named Player of the Tournament.

The U16’s Leg of the Sardis 7s – Sunday 6^th August

Finally, to finish off the weekend’s entertainment on Sunday 6th it was the U16’s Tournament. The winners in each competition – Plate Winners were St. Albans and Morriston were crowned Cup Champions.

The U16’s Leg: Plate Winners – St Albans, Cup Champions – Morriston and Morriston’s Charlie Paget was named Player of the Tournament.

Once again we’d like to place on record our thanks to all the teams that competed over the weekend – every single one played their part in making it such an entertaining three days of rugby. We’d also like to thank all the match officials who were kept extremely busy with the amount of rugby played.

Pontypridd RFC would once again like to thank all the sponsors who supported the event over the three days whilst reserving special thanks for Phil Miles from High Motive and official Club kit manufactures Scimitar for supplying playing kit to not only High Motive Commandos, but also The Students and Durbins Devils teams as well.