Flying Ravens soar into cup semi-finals
BRIDGEND RAVENS .. 24 NEATH .......................... 16
BRIDGEND Ravens reached the semi-finals of the Foster’s Challenge Cup with victory over Neath at the Bridgendford Brewery Field in an exciting game packed with incidents.
A poor start for the Ravens saw them trail 13-0 with half an hour played. Geraint Llewellyn bagged all of the visitors first half points with two early penalties and a well worked converted try.
Bridgend struck back late in the half. Mike Powell made ground out wide and with a great offload found Tom Morgan. The flanker burst into the Neath 22 and managed to get the offload away to tighthead prop Garyn Daniel. The prop managed to slip out of a defender’s grasp to go over. Joseph Scrivens kicked the conversion.
The Ravens struck again seconds later following a poor Neath clearance. Powell raced into the 22 and timed the last pass perfectly to send Dan Howells over leaving Bridgend trailing by one at half time.
Bridgend started the second half in the same fashion they finished the first, getting a third try. Supporters Man-of-theMatch Garyn Daniel was again able to barge over for a try after strong carries from front row partners Cai Lewis and Iestyn Merriman. Scrivens con- Chinnock first aider with Terry Pemberton as captain.
In their first game they were hammered by 46 points to 3 by the outstanding Maesteg Youth on the Cabbage patch (now Bridgend Athletic Club track) and the Athletic ended with only 14 players as their full back had enough and walked off the pitch at half-time!
Fortunately morale was not affected. After a 7-7 draw with Caerphilly in the fourth game, their first win came away against Tondu 12-14 in game seven.
The record in the first season was P26, W9, D1, L16 but in the second year with the late Lino LaForges as captain we won 15 games and in year three we won the District verted. Neath played 30 minutes of the second half with a man advantage as Bridgend were shown three yellow cards throughout the half. Tom Morgan, Gareth Beer and Connor Tantum were all sent to the bin for infringements but the Ra- League Cup and Tries Trophy Shield with our present head coach John Apsee as vice-captain.
David stayed with the Youth for seven years, but Phil Rees, who had always helped out with the coaching, become the main man for the next 30 years with outstanding help from many others particularly Steve Pilliner, Glyn Rees, Keith Thomas, Terry Coles, Tony Griffiths, Paul Hearne, Mark Davies, Anthony Woodwood, Mark Watts, Steve Penry-Ellis, Ian Greenman, Tony Bennett down to our present outstanding Youth set up of Mark Phillips, Lee Grabham, John Doherty, Kevin Gamble and Keith Hobby who organise our two Youth teams.
The club have won the Webb Ellis Youth Final twice in 2007 and 2009 vens defence stepped up and repelled many Neath attacks.
The only points Neath managed to land in the second half came again from the boot of Llewellyn. The former Raven took his and his team’s tally to 16 with a penalty with just and also been runners up, and also won the RAF Youth League Final in 2009 all at the Millennium Stadium. The Youth have won the Ospreys A league four times and hopefully again this season as so far they are unbeaten, the District Cup at least 12 times also numerous Sevens tournaments.
Outstanding players produced include Lee Byrne (Lions and Wales), Rhys Webb, Scott Baldwin, Matthew Morgan (Wales), John Apsee (Wales B), Nicky Griffiths, Luke Morgan, Lloyd Evans (Wales 7s), Steve Lyons, Dan Apsee, Rhodri Apsee (Malta), Neil Thomas (Oman), Steve Groom, Nigel Dennis, Huw Hathaway, Mike Miller, Kyle Coulter (Wales District Internationals). Wales under 18 Internationals – over an hour played.
The Ravens superb defence led to the hosts’ bonus point try after successfully holding up a Neath attack and forcing a turnover.
From the resulting scrum, Matthew Edwards found room to chip ahead Malcolm Hall, Paul Jones, Simon Cole, Tom Hearne, Lloyd Ryland, Dan Apsee, Nicky Griffiths, Andrew Kingdom, Jonathan Jones, Rhys Webb, H Molitika, Lee Sims, Kyle Maiden, Tom Williams, Jack Shaw, Lloyd Peers(now Ashley), Tom Habberfield, Matthew Morgan and Evan Yardley. Tom Hearne, Paul Jones and Nicky Griffiths also went on to represent Wales at Under-21 level. Luke Hathaway and Rhodri Jones won Welsh under-19 caps and Rhys Webb, Matthew Morgan and Lloyd Peers (Ashley) were capped at Wales under-20 level – Lloyd as captain. Rhys also played in the Wales sevens team that won the World Championship.
Wales Under-16 representative honours were also won by Chris Davies, and the flyer managed to gather his kick over the line for the try.
A bonus point win for Bridgend means they secured top spot in Pool 4, and along with Merthyr, Bedwas and Carmarthen Quins reach the semifinal. Dean Griffiths, Simon Cole, Ben Collins, Ryan Evans, and Lewis Kirby.
Many players have gone on to play regional rugby and Premiership rugby, mainly for the Ospreys and Bridgend RFC but also for Celtic Warriors, Scarlets, Dragons, Cardiff Blues, Swansea, Aberavon, Llanelli, Maesteg, Bedwas and Neath.
The first 40 years after humble beginnings have been unbelievingly successful, here’s to the next 40!
To commemorate the occasion there was a special fixture played on January 11 against a Bridgend and District Youth side, which the Athletic Youth won 27-8 in a highly entertaining game watched by a decent sized crowd at the Bridgend Ford Brewery Field.