Wales 80 Scotland – under 16 international report – plus Torfaen 38 Rhondda 38

Here are match reports from the junior international – Wales v Scotland, as well as the final regular season Welsh Premier League game – Torfaen Tigers v Rhondda Outlaws.

Please see http://www.walesrugbyleague.co.uk/article/16403/wales-under–name–man-training-squad for a list of schools or colleges that the Wales players attend.

UNDER 16 INTERNATIONAL
WALES 80 SCOTLAND 0
Robin Park, Wigan

Wales Under 16s achieved the nation’s highest age-grade win in 17 years after beating a fledgling Scotland side 80-0.

Six of Wales’ players, Ewan Badham, Kyle Huish, Jacob Lee, Harvey McDaid, Keenan McDaid and Shaun Webber, were in the under 16 side who beat England last year and they’ll now be fired up for the rematch on September 1^st at Stebonheath Park in Llanelli when the English return for their annual encounter.

The inexperienced Scotland side, most of whom are in their first season playing rugby league, were no match for their opponents, many of whom have been playing since aged 11. These include two from Cardiff’s Ysgol Gyfun Gymareg Glantaf, Josh Atkinson and Iwan Pyrs-Jones, now at Wigan Warriors, who tasted glory at Wembley Stadium in the 2015 Year 7 Champion Schools Final.

Wales had Scotland on the backfoot from the start and a Brynmor Bradley try gave them a eighth minute lead with Jac Lloyd converting.

An unconverted Harvey McDaid try soon followed, before another good effort from Iwan Pyrs-Jones, who became famous for his wonder try at Wembley three years ago, converted by Lloyd, brought the score onto 16-0 on 16 minutes.

It took another 10 minutes for Wales to increase their score, McDaid getting his second of the game and Lloyd converting. That made it 22-0 and Wales scored another three tries in the next nine minutes to go in with a 40-0 half-time lead – Josh Atkinson, Ben Pinnock and Lewis Gough all ran over with Lloyd kicking well.

Shaun Webber got a hat-trick of tries in the first eight second half minutes, all converted by Lloyd, to bring the score up to 58-0.

Further tries followed by David Yulu-Nzamba and Ewan Badham, the first converted by Lloyd, to make it 68-0 on 54 minutes.

Wales were on course to beat their junior record of 84-0, set by the under 17s in 2001 in the country’s first ever age-grade international, again versus Scotland, and it’s to the Scots’ credit that they didn’t achieve this. The floodgates closed for 11 minutes before Jason Lee’s try converted by Kyle Huish made it 74-0.

Then from kick-off, McDaid’s hat-trick try, converted by Huish completed the scoring.

Wales team manager Peter Tiffin said: “It’s great to get off to a winning start in our programme especially after such a tough couple of weeks in back to back camps at Wigan.

“I thought the boys were great today, they didn’t think they needed to score at every opportunity and went through everything Jason and the team have been working on over the last 14 days.

“I would like to thank the Scotland boys and their staff for the fixture today, they have plenty of potential and never gave up and it’s good to see the pathway at that age grade being made important in Scotland.

“We will now get back in to camp over the next couple of weeks to prepare for our next fixture against England at Stebonheath Park.

“After the match we sat down with the boys and they said that we know he can’t be with us but that win was for Dafydd Hellard, our assistant coach who is currently fighting testicular cancer.”

WALES
1 Harvey McDaid (Halton Farnworth Hornets / St Helens)
2 Shaun Webber (Cardiff Blue Dragons)
3 George Sheppard (West Wales Raiders)
4 Ben Pinnock (Aber Valley Wolves)
5 Iwan Pyrs-Jones (Wigan Warriors)
6 Kyle Huish (Aber Valley Wolves / Wigan Warriors)*
7 Jac Lloyd (Wigan Warriors)
8 Reilly Scriven (Torfaen Tigers)
9 Keenan McDaid (Halton Farnworth Hornets / St Helens)
10 Jacob Lee (Aber Valley Wolves / Wigan Warriors)*
11 Ewan Badham (Llanelli Knights / City of Hull)*
12 Morgan Jones (Cardiff Blue Dragons)
13 Brynmor Bradley (London Broncos)
Subs:
14 Josh Atkinson (Wigan Warriors)
15 Cameron Samuel (Cardiff Blue Dragons)
16 Ieuan Hancock (Torfaen Tigers)*
17 Lewis Gough (Cardiff Blue Dragons)
18 Luis Roberts (Folly Lane / Salford Red Devils)
19 Callum Penn (Torfaen Tigers)
20 David Yulu-Nzamba (Wigan Warriors)

Tries: Bradley (8), McDaid (13, 26, 69), Prys-Jones (16), Atkinson (30), Pinnock (33), Gough (35), Webber (37, 40, 43), Yulu-Nzamba (48), Badham (54), Lee (65)
Goals: Lloyd 10/12, Huish 2/2

* Also in West Wales Raiders Academy

SCOTLAND
1 Euan Duguid
2 Finlay McCartney
18 Jak Quinn
4 Ben Jardine
5 Fraser Whyte
6 Matthew Ferguson (capt)
7 Cameron Young
20 Mason Cullen
9 Spike Birkett
10 Jarvis Bull
21 Jamie Young
24 Jack Smith
13 Cameron Taylor
Subs:
14 Danny Healey
15 Max Wallace
16 Aaron McCall
17 Ross Forrest

TORFAEN TIGERS 38 RHONDDA OUTLAWS 38
By Ian Golden at Cwmbran RFC

Torfaen Tigers and Rhondda Outlaws fought out a 15-try thriller in Cwmbran on Saturday with the honours even at 38-all.

Outlaws were chasing a 49-point win the finish third in the final Welsh Premier League table and after coming storming out of the blocks with an early 16-0 lead, it looked like they were on their way to achieving their goal.

Tries from Mike Herbert, Tom Hopkins and Rhodri Garland, the latter two converted by Max Hendy gave them the perfect start before Dai Thomas stretched out for a try back for Torfaen which he converted himself.

A Sion Griffiths try in the corner made it 20-6 before an unconverted try by Mike Edwards gave Torfaen further hope.

But a Jackson Huntley try under the sticks, converted by Hendy made it 26-10 to Rhondda at the break.

The home side were given a talking to at half-time and it appeared to do the trick. Ewan Morris scored in the corner to opening their second half account before a 30 metre run and try from 17-year old Dai Norris gave them further hope. Thomas converted.

A Darryl Moyle try converted by Thomas levelled it at 26-all but Rhondda soon regained the lead with an unconverted Taine Hendy try.

Then Torfaen took the lead for the first time in the game when Moyle scored his second of the game and Thomas converted.

An unconverted Dean Whatley try gave Rhondda the lead back but Torfaen had the advantage once again with five minutes to go after a good run from Matt Williams and a Thomas conversion.

However, after looking to some that he’d received a forward pass, Mark Addis ran to level the scores. Max Hendy had a tricky kick to win the game but it slipped wide so honours were even.

Next week sees the semi-finals with the Outlaws travelling to Valley Cougars and the Tigers hosting Cardiff Blue Dragons.