Pontypridd Schools Under-15s 5 v Vale Schools Under-15s 12

DESPITE the Met Office warnings of terrible weather, the Vale of Glamorgan Schools Under-15s were on the road again on Saturday but only as far as Sardis Road, Pontypridd, for their Dewar Shield tie with Pontypridd Schools.

With the rain coming down, the Vale kicked off attacking at the clubhouse end. After a fairly even start the Vale took the lead through a Benji Williams try, a midfield break from captain Evan Lloyd who popped the ball to Williams who crashed over in the corner for the try, unfortunately no conversion from Jamie Howells, the ball bouncing the wrong way on the bar 5 - 0 to the Vale.

Pontypridd hit back following the try, launching attack after attack at the Vale line. Some great tackles from Will Tuckwell, Morgan Veness and Tristan Thomas, and some lovely clearance kicks from Tom Ap John, stemmed the tide.

Aggressive counter rucking from the Vale wing forwards Lewys Williams and Iestyn Galton helped the Vale regain the upper hand, good work at the base of the ruck from scrum half Will O’Connor allowed the Vale to bring their back line into the game, darting runs from Griff Naylor and the powerful runs of Dan Stancombe took the game back into the Pontypridd half.

The Vales’ second try soon followed. A lovely break from inside his own half saw Jamie Howells dance through the Pontypridd midfield, he passed to winger Jake Thomas who raced down the right of the field weaving in and out of the Pontypridd defence and was only held up by a desperate tackle within five metres of the opposition try line. He popped the ball to Iestyn Galton who swiftly passed to Dan Stancombe, who turned and passed to Griff Naylor, running a lovely line that cut through the final defenders to score in the left hand corner.

Howells added the extra points, the ball soaring between the posts.

The teams went into half-time with the Vale leading by 12 points to nil.

The second half saw the Vale under the cosh for large periods with Pontypridd in general having the better of the game. The Vales defence was however superb, as was their scrummage who continually drove back the bigger Pontypridd pack.

Evan Lloyd and Jarred Williams were both working hard in the second row. Both wingers had a good game, Rhys Gentiles tearing down his wing on a number of occasions before being injured, his replacement Ed Thomas did well, tackling hard.

As the game drew on, Pontypridd’s 'never-say-die' attitude paid off and they crossed the line by the posts, luckily for the Vale the rushed conversion kick was missed. The final few minutes of the game saw the Vales defence tested again and again as Pontypridd strived for the line but they couldn't get anymore points.

The Vale’s next game is home at Canton RFC against unbeaten Pembrokeshire schools. Follow the team on twitter @ValeSchoolsU15 for kick-off time.

As always the team's thanks go to their sponsors, Apricot Online learning, to the coaches and parents and Elaine O'Connor for the photographs.