The Young Ospreys answered any doubts about how serious their intent is in defending their Reebok title with a superb team performance against the Scarlets at Narberth last night (Wednesday).
It was a wet and windy evening and the Young Ospreys had both the advantage of the wind and slope in the first half of the game. It was therefore a concern to the coaching staff that the Scarlets came out of the blocks stronger and dominated the first 10 minutes. However, the Young Osprey team is made of stern stuff and they constantly knocked back their opponents at the contact area. Both of the Young Ospreys tries came as a result of counter attack play. Firstly when the Scarlets kicked long from their 22m line, scrum half Rhys Webb ran back at them. He then fed full back Luke Hathaway who placed a delicate kick towards the left hand corner which resulted in a footrace between outside half Nick Roberts (pictured), wing Leigh Halfpenny and the Scarlets cover defence. Roberts won the race but not to be outdone Halfpenny retrieved the ball and converted it from the touchline. The second try came when replacement scrum half Chris Morgan took a quick tap and spun the ball wide. Centre Alex Evans found a gap in the defence and ran 40 metres to the Scarlets 22m line. Then quickly re-cycled ball was again moved wide and a superb long pass in midfield from 2nd row Kyle Maiden to wing James Pike allowed him to speed into the right hand corner for a try; once again Halfpenny converted from the touchline. In the first half the Scarlets scored 10 points from a try by centre Rhys Williams and a penalty and conversion from full back Daniel Evans, while Halfpenny added a penalty for a scoreline of 17 points to 10 in the Young Ospreys favour. Although the second half threw up try scoring opportunities the difficult conditions made it such that neither side was able to take one. However, Halfpenny and Evans traded penalties for a final score of 20 points to 13. Next up for the Young Ospreys under 20's is a home fixture at South Wales Police RFC on Wednesday 6th December, 7.15pm kick off. On that night the Blues will be the visitors and the Young Ospreys will need to beat them if they are going to retain their Reebok trophy.