Whitland RFC Youth team travelled to Cardigan for this top-of-the-league clash with a bare 15 players.

This, however, did not stop them from taking the field with attacking intent, scoring two tries in the first five minutes.

The first came after a good lineout take from Aled John on the halfway line was turned into a driving maul and driven 20 metres downfield. When the ball was released to the backs, a quick ball out to Dan Lewis saw him beat three men to score.

Just a minute later, Lewis made another scorching break; he was tackled, but the forwards won fast ruck ball for the backs to quickly move out to right winger Ollie Morgan, who scored in the corner. This try was converted by Steffan James to take the score to 12- 0 to Whitland.

From the restart, Whitland failed to catch the ball and, after a series of rucks and missed tackles, the Cardigan number 10 went in for a try under the posts, converted by their scrum-half Luke Rogers.

Whitland continued to attack and extended their lead after Cardigan were guilty of not rolling away and Steffan James kicked the penalty to take the score to 15-7.

The turning point came seven minutes from half-time when a leg injury sustained by left winger Josh Thoms meant that, with no substitues, Whitland were down to 14 men for the rest of the game.

This was quickly followed by a try from the excellent Cardigan and Pembrokeshire county under 19s scrum-half Luke Rogers, again converted to bring the score to 15-14.

At the start of the second half Cardigan now had and used the slope to their advantage. Good pressure from them saw a rare mistake from the Whitland outside-half when his kick was charged down. Cardigan capitalised by winning the loose ball and feeding their right wing to score a try. With Luke Rogers again converting, it took them into the lead at 21-15.

At this stage, 14-man Whitland were more than holding their own with some excellent defence and the occasional break out in attack.

Unluckily, though, it was one crunching tackle from Whitland which led to Cardigan's next try. For, although a home player appeared to spill the ball forward as a result of the hit, the referee allowed play to continue, enabling Cardigan to regather and grab the touchdown. The try was again converted by Luke Rogers to take Cardigan to a two-score advantage at 28-15.

With Whitland now having to run everything from everywhere and with one man down gaps started to appear in defence. Cardigan capitalised on the mismatch by running in two more tries, one by the fullback and another by the right winger. Both were converted from the touchline by Rogers, who did not miss a kick all day, taking the score to 42-15.

With 15 minutes to play, Whitland Youth, to their credit, showed their fitness and attitude by attacking Cardigan, with their forwards hitting ruck after ruck and the backs always willing to run the ball. On two occasions, after good handling and linking by forwards and backs, it was only the last pass and good defensive tackling that stopped them scoring.

But they were not to be denied on the third occasion, when again after good link-up play, Richie Waters, who had a strong game at hooker, went over in the corner for what turned out to be the last try of the game, with Cardigan running out 42-20 winners.

The Whitland coaching team felt the score was certainly not a true reflection of what was a very entertaining and hard fought game, praising their 15 available players for exceptional effort, with Dewi Davies, Kieron Narbett and Richie Waters all standing out out in only their first season of youth rugby, and LLyr Ebsworth looking very comfortable in his first game filling in at fullback rather than his customary scrum-half role.