Cardiff Blues under 18s kicked off their WRU Reebok regional Championship season with a 19-13 victory over the Scarlets at Llandovery last night.

Solomon Matthews, a penalty try and Gus Davies bagged tries for the visitors who also added two conversions from the boot of outside half Joe Deacon.
The Scarlets, who led 8-7 at the interval courtesy of a try from wing Guto Griffiths and a Stephen Shingler penalty, were hoping for more after the disappointment of failing to reach last season’s final.

Lock Greg George kept the Scarlets in the hunt, but the Blues had enough to hold on to a valuable away day victory.

Gafyn Cooper, high performance manager of the Blues said, “It is difficult to know what kind of side you have from your pre season, but we are delighted with the manner in which they played and won this opening game.

“They showed some great quality and to bag an away day victory on the opening night is fantastic.

“There were some excellent performances, notably from lock John George and centre Ryan Healy.”

Meanwhile in the other game of the night a try hat trick from centre Kristian Phillips earned the Ospreys’ under 18s an opening night victory against the Dragons at Llandarcy Academy.

Further tries from Ashley Beck and Ryan Bayliss guided the host region to a 31-3 success over the Dragons whose only points came from a successful penalty kick from outside half Danny Ellis.

Dai Arthur, high performance manager of the Ospreys said, “It was a good way to kick off the season, against a strong looking Dragons side.

“We are delighted with the manner in which we finished our chances and felt that it was a good all round performance against a strong looking Dragons side.”