Llanelli Wanders Match Report

Venue: Broadacre

Result: Win

Score: 40-19

It was another home game for us this week. Our guests were Llanelli Wanderers. We’d played these before and knew that they were a decent outfit. The pitch was heavy and the wind was up so we were mindful that we had to play the conditions. Thankfully, the rain held off!

It was Tom’s last game as captain today and he finally managed to win the toss (not quite the tosser I thought he was eh? 😀). He elected to kick off and Sam put in a lovely kick to get us deep in to Wanderer’s half. The chase was good, and we got an early foothold. The forwards carried hard and Koby cut a lovely line to cut through the Wanderer’s defensive line but was stopped 5m out. Llanelli Wanderers were awarded a penalty but failed to make touch. We ran it back to them and put them under all sorts of pressure, winning a penalty of our own. Sam belted it into the 22 and we carried well from the line out, going through seven phases and sucking in the Wanderer’s defence to allow Iestyn to cross for the first try of the day. Sam slotted the conversion and it was 7-0 to Dunvant.

We were great at the ruck today and our back row of Jordy, George and Koby made life very difficult for our guests on the floor. We pinned the Wanderers in their own half and kept going through the phases with forwards and backs combining well to work the mismatches in midfield. The next try was another superb team effort. From a scrum deep in their half, Jordy picked and went down the blind side before offloading to Sam who drew his defender before releasing Izac on the right wing, who powered his way past two defenders to score out wide. Sam narrowly missed the conversion so it was 12-0 with seven minutes gone.

We weren’t about to let up and kept the Wanderer’s pack under an intense amount of pressure. To their credit though, they defended resolutely and made us work for every metre of territory. From a ruck deep in their half, Dykey spotted that they were short of defenders on the open side and switched the point of attack before drawing his defender and releasing Izak for his second try of the day. Sam slotted the conversion to take it to 19-0.

We weren’t done yet though and just four minutes later, Izak was in again for his third try of the day.

Sam gathered the ball from the re-start deep in our half and set off an attack down the left wing. El-Torro (Ben) went on the rampage and got us over the halfway line. Tom, Callum and Jordy carried and El-Torro went on the rampage again down the right wing handing off defenders for fun before offloading to George. We won the ensuing ruck and Dykey spun it out wide into the oncoming express train, Koby who made another 15m.

We won quick ruck ball and Dykey let Sam loose, who made another 10 m. Tom carried again before setting up yet another ruck.

Dykey switched the play again and Sam fed George who made another couple of metres down the left side, before offloading to Ellis who battled hard to keep the ball in play. Koby and George combined to win the ball in less than 2 seconds at the ruck and Rio fed El-Torro who was more than happy to carry again for us making another 10m down the tight tramline of the left wing.

Another quick ruck ball was won by the forwards, and Jordy carried again getting tackled 5m out from the try line. The relentless attack from Dunvant had sucked in most of the Wanderer’s defence at this point leaving acres of space out wide. Rio fed H, who gave it to Sam. Sam beat his defender with a crisp pass to Iestyn who fed Izac out wide and his dancing feet took him over the line for a well-earned hattrick. Sam slotted the conversion and it was 26-0 with two minutes to go before half-time.

For me, this was, by far, the best try of the day! In order to score it we carried the ball for over 80m, put it through thirteen pairs of hands and went through fourteen phases of play before scoring out-wide. What an incredible thing to achieve for kids that are just 11 or 12 years old!!!

Wanderers weren’t done yet, though and caught us napping at the centre of the line out. They burst through and got behind us. Our defence was all over the place, and some missed tackles allowed them to score a decent try of their own. They missed the kick, and so it was 26-5 at half-time.

We spoke to the boys at the interval and told them that it was important to score first. We didn’t make it easy for ourselves as we spilt the ball from the re-start and found ourselves defending our lines with a scrum to the Wanderers on our 22m line. They attacked the short side and our excellent pack of forwards managed to win the ball at the ruck and turn them over. We won a penalty as the Wanderers went off their feet and the reliable boot of Sam Phillips got us out of trouble again!

H then put himself right at the top of my Christmas card list by executing a perfect 50-22 from the lineout! This meant that we now had the ball deep in Wanderers half and had gained 70m of territory from two phases of play!!! Tom called a move from the line out, and Jordy exploded through to score the first try of the half.

Of course, Sam did his bit and added the two points to make it 33-5.

(Honestly, as I write this, I can’t believe that this is an Under 12s side!)

The next try also came from a set play. Jordy put pressure on the outside half at the lineout, forcing him to knock the ball on. We had a scrum 7m out in front of the sticks. We got the ball out to the wing and they stopped us with a great tackle on JT. We switched the play and Iestyn made a lovely dart before getting hauled down. H found Van who made a lovely run before offloading to Sam, who made his conversion easier by scoring under the sticks. The conversion took it to 40-5 and we thought the game was over.

Wanderers had other ideas though, and, to their absolute credit never gave up! From deep in their half, they worked the ball upfield and some lovely handling and interplay with the forwards saw them make 80m to score their best try of the day, taking the score to 40-10 before they slotted the conversion, making it 40-12.

Wanderers were determined to have the last word and they caught us napping again from deep in their half when their explosive winger spotted a gap on the right wing and ran 60m for a brilliant individual effort. They slotted the conversion and it ended at 40-19.

This was my favourite game as a Dunvant coach. We won that game as a team and although, as always there were some incredible efforts from individuals (I could name every player that put that shirt on today) we won this as a team against very decent opposition. Well done kids. As always, your parents should be very proud.

Player of the Game today for his work at the breakdown was Jordy. Well done mate, and also well done on the “pint of nasty”; you animal!

Until next time….