By 14 year old year 9 pupil Morgan Williams from Maesteg School, Date: 26/5/13
Three years after Celtic Crusaders left Bridgend, a Super League side returned to the County Borough at the prestigious venue of the brand new Maesteg School.
While their first team were hammering into local rivals Castleford Tigers at the Etihad Stadium, Wakefield Trinity Wildcats were taking on WRL-coached South Wales Scorpions at under 16 level, resulting in an astonishing 26-26 draw.
The weather was warm with a light breeze and it was perfectly suited for open flowing rugby and just two minutes into the game, the Wildcats plundered into the Scorpions’ half, resulting in a try from Max Jowitt. Tom Megretton then converted, leaving the Scorpions 6-0 down.
Minutes later they scored a second, from Kieran Holt, after a second Wildcats penalty.
The Scorpions were left chasing, but as the game progressed Marcus Webb scored a well-deserved try. It was just a minute after his first valiant effort was disallowed, being held up over the line.
On 29 minutes Scorpions levelled. Morgan Jeffries was given the ball on a quick offload and hit up, to dive under the posts. Ben Jones then converted the try, doing exactly the same in the last few minutes from Connor Parker, leaving the half time score at Scorpions 16, Wildcats 10.
Unfortunately Parker was taken off early in the second half following a head injury, bringing on Alex King in his place.
The performance from the Wildcats vastly improved after the interval as they scored four tries, none of which were converted. A hat-trick from Harry Swan led the way with an additional try from Declan Brereton.
Two second half tries from Zac Williams was enough to keep the Scorpions in the game and they just about held on for the draw as they finished with 12 men after Morgan Jeffries was sent from the field five minutes from the end following a high tackle.
Assistant coach Lee Cullen said: “I think 26 all was a fair result on the game. We thought we were the much better side first half. In the second half we scored a quick try, but, later on in our game they came back due to our errors, our mistakes, our penalties.”
South Wales Scorpions
1 Ben Jones
2 Regan Grace
3 Zac Williams
4 Marcus Webb
5 Garyn Payne
6 Curtis Davies
7 Fforest Quirke
8 Rhys Brownsell
9 Lewis Alexader
10 Keiran Hughes
11 Luke Williams
12 Morgan Jeffries
13 Connor Davies
Subs:
14 Alex King
15 Will Hope
16 Connor Parker
17 Sion Jones
18 Jake Carroll
19 Spencer Ward Henry
TRIES
Marcus Webb (16)
Morgan Jeffries (29)
Connor Parker (32)
Zac Williams (38, 53)
GOALS
Ben Jones 3/5
Wakefield Wildcats
1 Max Jowitt
2 Matt Hick
18 Harry Swan
4 Kieran Holt
5 Declan Brereton
6 Alex Parker
7 Tom Megretton
8 Jamie Robinson
9 Ben Cornell
10 Callum Sampson
11 Nathan Stone
12 Thomas Griffiths
13 Jordan Crowther
Subs:
14 Aiden Kay
15 Joe Greiff
16 Connor Clarke
17 Luke Powell
3 Will Hudson
19 Declan Stykes
TRIES
Max Jowitt (2)
Keiran Holt (6)
Harry Swan (42, 58, 65)
Declan Brereton (48)
GOALS
Tom Megretton 1/5
Ben Jones 0/1
