After a weather enforced, longer than scheduled Christmas break, Caernarfon
Under 14's were raring to go in their third meeting this season with
Llangefni.
The writing seemed to be on the wall after 7½ minutes when Llangefni scored
- but with the touchdown out near the corner, the conversion went wide.
After an inspired tactical substitution on 20 minutes, Aled Jones picked up
a loose ball at the base of the scrum and crossed - close enough to the
posts to make his own conversion a formality, 5-7 to Caernarfon.
With both teams evenly matched in both forwards and backs, the game was
poised to go either way, but a strong Caernarfon scrum on the Llangefni 5m
line saw the ball worked out through the backs for Sion Hywyn Griffiths to
cross. The trusty left foot of stand off Aled Jones gave Caernarfon the lead
5-14 at the break.
Whatever was said to the Llangefni side at half time, worked, with the team
coming out for the second half on fire. However they were helped by
confusion in the Caernarfon backs when the ball was carried back over their
line and stolen from under their noses. The converted try within two minutes
of the re-start bought Cefni back to 12-14. Llangefni were unlucky that when
they crossed the line again, the referee saw a knock on and from the
resultant scrum, Caernarfon cleared their lines.
Llangefni spent most of the second period in the Caernarfon half and were
rewarded with another try - but again far out wide which meant their hard
work was only rewarded with 5 points - but good enough to take their lead to
17-14.
As the referee called final play on a scrum near enough on halfway, that
17-14 lead seemed enough - until Aled Jones received the ball from the scrum
and raised a cross field kick. When the ball was collected by a Llangefni
player Caernarfon fans thought that the end was nigh, but a strong chase and
tackle by Jac Evans and Tomos Jones, saw Jones leave with the ball, and
no-one could stop him as he raced up the touchline to cross near the corner
flag. But with everyone screaming at him to ground the ball, Jones - with
two Llangefni defenders in hot pursuit, continued until he was right under
the posts, to make Aled Jones' conversion a certain 2 extra points to give
Caernarfon the win 17-21.
Next week Caernarfon travel to Nant Conwy for what will surely prove to be
another tough game.
