Dinas Powis RFC Youth Save The Day

The tradition of the Good Friday rugby fixture has never been lost by the people of Penarth, and last Friday, despite the heavy rain, a crowd of over 700+ attended the Penarth Athletic field to watch and support the Penarth RFC Youth, who have taken on the huge mantle of replacing the Easter Barbarians game.

The game itself was hampered by set backs when officials from the Cardiff and Vale Youth team withdrew from the fixture with only two days to go. Despite numerous assurances from the District team over many months, the late withdrawal left the Youth coaches and team fixture secretary spending a frantic 24hrs ringing around to numerous teams in order to keep the traditional match on Good Friday alive, and it was local team Dinas Powis RFC Youth who stepped in at the last minute to save the day and make sure the match took place.

With the weather also hampering the game, the conditions on the pitch were truly awful after days of heavy rain, and as the crowd arrived, the Penarth coaches were still bailing water into buckets to try and keep the game on.

Thankfully, the officials of the game passed the pitch playable and the match went ahead in continuous rain and lots of mud.

With Dinas missing some key players, it says everything for the spirit of the game that they still wanted to give the Penarth boys a game, and it was Penarth who seemed to adapt to the conditions well and were able to move the ball quickly to open up the scoring early in the game.

The steady flow of tries continued for Penarth as the bigger Penarth pack controlled the set piece and were able to shift the ball quickly to the back line, who ran in several tries for the home team. Dinas continually tackled ferociously in open play and defended their lines with great enthusiasm.

The large crowd also added to a terrific atmosphere with renditions of ‘Sweet Caroline’ and the singing of the Welsh National Anthem, together with numerous chants of encouragement for both teams and this just added to everyone enjoying a brilliant occasion.

With the officials of the game also joining in on the occasion allowing a free flowing game, despite the rain and mud under foot, both teams were able to produce some quality rugby to entertain the crowd.

The score in the game was irrelevant, the occasion was, and at the end, rugby won the day.

The coaches and committee at Penarth RFC Youth want to thank Dave Davies, his coaching team and Players from Dinas Powis for keeping the tradition of Good Friday Youth rugby at Penarth thriving .They would also like to thank Idris Davies, the referee, and his assistant referees for officiating the game, and the many volunteers who helped on the day.

There is no doubt that the players from Cardiff and District youth unfortunately lost out on a memorable day in their rugby lives, however, we hope that those from Dinas Powis Youth will remember the day with great pride and affection. We certainly do.

Note : Picture shows both teams, officials and coaches and the end of the game