A touchline conversion ensured the Blues South stayed unbeaten in the WRU Regional Championship at Leckwith.
A touchline conversion ensured the Blues South stayed unbeaten in the WRU Regional Championship at Leckwith.
The start though had belonged to the Ospreys. Two minutes in and they had their first try. A loose ball was picked up by Joseph Thomas who ran round three defenders before popping the ball off to Luke Price who scored in the corner.
Tyler Williams got the South on the board with a penalty a few minutes later, but a failure to deal with the restart gave the ball back to the visitors and from the resulting scrum Thomas was again to the fore as he smashed his was up the middle. Quick ruck ball created space for Jack Anderson to score. Price added the extras.
The South were working hard to get into the game. Captain Shane Young was leading by example and from one scrum he nearly barged his way over form ten metres out. When the ball was whipped away from the ruck Charlie Hall was bundled into touch just short.
The Ospreys lineout though was to prove a valuable source of ball for the South and from the lineout Jordan Viggers picked off the ball and Young went over from a few metres out. Williams added a tricky conversion to bring the South with a score.
The next ten minutes were forgettable from a Blues point of view. First Rory Bartle was harshly sent off for clearing a player away from a ruck with his foot, then to add to the misery the Ospreys extended their lead. Joseph Thomas, who was proving a thorn in the home side, made space to score, Price converted to give the visitors a nine point half time lead.
Half Time: Blues South 10 Ospreys 19
The half time team talk must have been a good one because the South came out with more purpose at the beginning of the second period. Prop Robert Lewis made several rumbles up-field, but the final pass was not going to hand. The visitors did have a penalty to extend their lead, but Price was wide with his attempt. Williams however did reduce the deficit for the South with a penalty ten minutes into the second half.
Again the restart was not controlled allowing Price another shot at goal, again he was wide. The Ospreys were reduced to fourteen when No 8 Jonathan Fox was binned for a team offence and from there the South took control of the match.
Replacement Callum Sheedy was now running the show, his tactical kicking was putting the South in the right areas of the field and with pressure on the Ospreys lineout it was no surprise when the South gained possession again. From second phase possession Sheedy spotted space on the wide outside and place a pin point cross kick for Ellis Wyn Bebham to catch and score. Tyler Williams stepped up from wide out to dissect the posts with his conversion.
It was then a matter of making sure the defensive efforts was solid, and it was. As the clock ran down the visitors became more and more desperate and this led to errors, the last one of which was a knock on that was happily kicked into touch and for the referee to blow for no side.
Speaking after the game coach Jamie Ringer said ‘first half we were missing first up tackles and making simple mistakes, but we talked about it at half time and we told the boys not to panic and back ourselves and put it right and that’s what we did. As for the cross kick that’s the type of thing you cant teach, he’s a class act but all the boys believe in themselves as well as each other and that showed tonight’.
Blues South
Tries: Young, Bebham
Penalties: Williams x 2
Conversions: Williams x 2
Drop Goals:
Cards: Bartle - Red
Ospreys
Tries: Price, Thomas, Anderson
Penalties:
Conversions: Price x 2
Drop Goals:
Cards: Fox - Yellow