UNDER 16s : WALES 34 CATALANS DRAGONS 6

By Peter Tiffin at Parc Stebonheath, Llanelli

Wales under 16s produced a remarkable result on Sunday morning as they beat Catalans Dragons 34-6 at Parc Stebonheath in Llanelli.

Everyone in the Welsh camp understood they were in for a tough battle as the junior Super League outfit travelled with a strong 20-man squad.

As Catalans had to travel back to France later on Sunday evening, an early kick off at Stebonheath was decided, and with both teams all ready and waiting to enter the field from the dugout it was finally time for the future of rugby league in Wales and France to show what they had to offer.

The game began with both sets of teams taking some time to get used to the wet weather but it was the Welsh side who managed to score first as a well worked set saw hooker Ben Hunter snipe over from short range, Taylor Phillips added the conversion.

Even though the rain continued to come down heavily, both sets of sides managed to have their fair share of the possession with neither team backing down as the physicality between both seemed to increase with every tackle.

As the physicality grew, a great play from the Welsh side saw prop Ellis Brown smash over to give his side a two try lead, Taylor Phillips added the conversion again.

As the score was now 12-0 to the Welsh select, Catalans continued to pressure their defence and managed to find themselves with a scrum in the oppositions 10 metre line. From the scrum a well worked move saw winger Lucas Bosc dive over in the corner, Bosc also added the two points with a fantastic kick from out wide. 12-6 to the Welsh at the break.

With both sets of teams going back in to the changing rooms for the half time break, it seemed that the Welsh staff had the more convincing words as the Welsh players came out all guns blazing and it didn’t take them long for them to improve on their first half points as full back Karlin Claridge found himself with space to cross over for his team’s third try, Taylor Phillips added the conversion once again.

With the Welsh sides confidence increasing with each play they managed to find themselves in a fantastic position in which full back Claridge decided to attack the opposition line on the last tackle and offload to his team mate James Smith for him to cross over in the corner, this time it was too wide for Phillips as the conversion was missed.

As the score was increasing Catalans knew that they had to score next and even though they had a lot of the possession over the next couple of minutes. The Welsh sides defence was very strong and on numerous occasions didn’t allow them out of their own half through putting a high level of pressure on the French side to make mistakes. It was from one of the mistakes in which hooker Ben Hunter managed to find himself in a great position to score his second try of the game, Taylor Phillips added the conversion.

With minutes remaining and the Catalans finding it difficult to make their way out of their own 22-metre line man of the match James Bartlett powered over to put a cap on a fantastic all round performance from the Welsh under 16s.

The Welsh staff would like to thank everyone involved with the Catalans Dragons and are looking forward to continuing the future fixtures over the next couple of years.