Behind the scenes with West Wales Raiders Manager Peter Tiffin

Last weekend saw the reserves and under 15s in action on Saturday and Sunday. The reserve squad welcomed the linked club Cardiff City to Parc Gwenllian for their Welsh Conference fixtures. The game had everything as both sets of sides played some attacking rugby, the young Raiders reserves managed to come out on top with a 44-28 full time score.

On Sunday the West Wales Raiders under 15s travelled to Aber Valley Wolves to play in a Junior Welsh Conference fixture, this game was very similar to the one the previous day as both sets of teams decided to attack throughout and the score board showed this as the final score was West Wales Raiders under 15s 38-22 Aber Valley Wolves under 15s.

This week began with myself and Raiders assistant coach Andrew Thorne swapping our usual roles for the Raiders to do the same for Wales under 16s as they prepared to face South Wales Rabbitohs in a warm up match at Pontyclun RFC. With a large crowd at the game it was great to see so much talent on show from both sets of squads, the game was a tough one for the Welsh players as the Rabbitohs never backed down with plenty of determination and a fantastic team ethos throughout. The final score did not represent how the majority of the game went as Wales under 16s finished the game with 3 unanswered tries making the score South Wales Rabbitohs 22 – 36 Welsh Select under 16s.  As part of the Wales staff I just wanted to thank everyone involved as the whole evening both on and off the field was a credit to the always improving Junior club.

The remainder of my week I travelled to Hull to work with Jon Ellis (WRL Coaching & Performance Development Manager) to spend some time with the City of Hull Academy staff. The city of Hull is a combination of both super league clubs Hull Kingston Rovers and Hull FC. Whilst we were working with the staff we managed to learn a lot and organised quite a lot of exciting stuff which will be released to the public pretty soon.

This weekend we have decided to team up with Trimsaran RFC for both of our Welsh Conference fixtures.

This Saturday & Sunday West Wales Raiders Reserves and Juniors will play at Cae Ffair, strengthening the great partnership between Trimsaran RFC and the Raiders and it was agreed that we would take both of our home fixtures this weekend to their home ground Cae Ffair. 

We would like to invite everyone to come and watch and encourage Raiders but also support Trimsaran RFC as all the money taken on both days will go back to Trimsaran  to help with their plans for a new rugby club.

The weekend will begin with West Wales Raiders reserves facing Blaenau Gwent Sharks in the Welsh Conference on Saturday and then the West Wales Raiders under 15s will face Aber Valley Wolves under 15s on Sunday.