Behind the scenes with West Wales Raiders Manager Peter Tiffin

Over the weekend we had a very busy schedule, on Saturday we had two away games within a matter of hours, this was always what we wanted at the club with more and more teams playing week in week out. The first game of the day saw our under 14s take a physical trip to play last years under 15s welsh champions South Wales Rabbitohs, the score did not go our way and the Rabbitohs did show why they were last year’s champions, but this game for us was to show our players what they can be if they stick together and play against teams their own age in next year’s Junior Welsh conference. Some people may ask why have we decided to enter the majority of our under 14s in to an under 15s league, and the main reason being; that they are easily beating teams their own age and will learn nothing from that so we felt it would be great experience for them all to play in this year’s under 15s Welsh conference.

The second game of the day was for our reserve squad, this is another area that we are happy to be involved in as we can use our younger players and players who train regularly but just don’t make the first team squad, as we had a first team game on the following day it was difficult to get as many players as possible as our injury list off the field was growing, regardless of the difficulties that came with the squad selection Abber Valley were always in control of the game and eased to a 44-12 score, it was great to see so many youngsters involved within the matchday squad and it took them to the last ten minutes to finally click and score back to back tries to finish off the game.

Our first team tend to play every Saturday in Conference league south but this weekend it was decided that ourselves and Gloucester All Golds reserves would play a part in a rugby league double header at Cheltenham, the first game would see North Wales Crusaders face Gloucester All Golds in Championship one, the game saw North Wales Crusaders snatch the victory, it was then on to us to face the All Golds reserves and keep on the winning trend of the welsh clubs that day.

The heavens opened just before the start of the game, which perhaps excused some of the handling errors but not all as the defence from both sides was fierce.
After ten mistake-filled minutes, we took the lead with a straightforward passing move that ended with Morgan Jefferiesscoring.
Eight minutes later Harry Kidd powered over, Archie Gibbs putting the All Golds ahead with the conversion. Rowland Kayedived in at the corner to put us back in front almost immediately but the All Golds were ahead at the break thanks to Luke Stephens who scored from close range.
A flurry of tries early in the second period saw the All Golds build then lose potentially match-winning leads but we just wouldn’t lie down and our interchange Kyle got the crucial score to put us ahead as he crashed through the defence to touch down and captain Luke Williams scored the vital two points to give us the win, the final score All Golds 24-26 Raiders.

This week has been a little different as each day we have had a work experience with us following each member of staff on their usual duties within the club, on Monday and Friday he came with myself to meeting with companies that we use throughout the season, on Tuesday and Thursday he spent some time with our grounds man Eddie Donne and got to see how much time and effort it takes to make sure that the ground is ready all year round for both Llanelli AFC and ourselves and on Wednesday and most evenings she was with our head coach Jon Ellis as he showed him how much work Jon does within the club as well as his role within Wales rugby league.

Over the weekend we have a home reserve fixture and a home under 15s fixture, there is no first team fixture due to a few unforseen circumstances.

The reserves will welcome Cardiff City to Parc Gwenllian, we have a great connection with Cardiff as we are heavily linked within our partnership as clubs, and earlier on in the season the score ended 22-22 so this game should be an exciting encounter. On Sunday our junior side welcome Abber Valley Wolves to Parc Gwenllian with the first fixture between both clubs. Why not call down to Parc Gwenllian this weekend to help support the future of rugby league in West Wales.