IT has been a mainly positive run for the Penarth RFC youth since the start of the second half of the Blues Premiership season, with the youth boys gaining four wins, and a draw in friendly matches, but picking up two losses in the Blues Premiership League Cup in the past month.

Having gained a well earned top half slot within the Blues Premiership Youth League at the end of a shortened season in December, the Penarth boys moved into the new tier 1 group of the league, to play off in a Blues cup competition.

Playing against the top 6 teams within the Cardiff Blues region, the first two games in the competition found the Penarth boys playing probably the two best teams in the cup, in the form of the Cardiff Met University team and League winners Mountain Ash RFC.

The university team is always a difficult game for the younger Penarth players, playing against mainly 3rd year 19-year-old youth players from the college, and so it proved, with the much larger Met team powering their way to a 40-0 win against the Youth boys at the Athletic ground at the beginning of March.

A fortnight later, on the 23rd March, the boys travelled to Mountain Ash RFC to play the league winners, and despite a valiant effort which saw the Penarth team push their opposition all the way, Mountain Ash ran in 2 late tries to see off the Penarth team and win 34-22.

It was important therefore that the team got back on the tracks, and last Saturday they went to local Cardiff team Llandaff North where they ran out winners by 57-7.

Playing a young Llandaff North team who are still in the process of building a squad for the future, and wanted the experience of playing a team from the premier league, it allowed the Penarth coaches to give a run to the younger members of the youth squad who overwhelmed the opposition, scoring 9 tries in a first half blitz.

With some of the senior 2nd and 3rd year players missing for the game it meant that the Penarth youth coaches had an opportunity to mix up the team both within the forwards and the back line which saw Joe Williams move into the centre with Mike Halligan and Rhys Powell and Cameron Sultana start in the pack at flanker and second row respectively.

Within 2 minutes of the start from Llandaff North, the ball was won at a ruck and quick ball from scrum half Aled Rees fed the ball in to the hands of outside half Drew Musa who put centre Joe Williams into space to open up the scoring with the first try.

After only 2 further minutes, a big carry into the North's half by Penarth prop Geraint Williams supported by hooker Tom Griffiths put the Penarth boys on the front foot and with the ball moved quickly along the Penarth back line, outside centre Mike Halligan ran in the 2nd try for the team. Converted by Musa, the score quickly moved on to 0-12.

From this point on, the floodgates really opened for the Penarth team with a further 7 tries being scored, which included a hat trick of tries for Joe Williams, tries for wing Zacc Fillau and first Youth tries for prop Owen Evans, second row Cam Sultana, flanker George Price and Dex Trivett who was making only his second appearance for the youth team on the wing.

Llandaff North scored a well worked try from their outside half, however, the sheer depth of power within the Penarth squad overwhelmed the home team and the match time called early.

Penarth's coaches were pleased to be able to once again have the opportunity to develop this talented squad of players at the Athletic field for future rugby at the club including the upcoming Blues Cup games and eventual move to the first team.