East Wales U14 came back from a 16-12 half-time deficit to beat West Wales 36-22 at Cardiff University Sports Park.
Led by enthusiastic captain Mason Lloyd, who scored two tries and Torfaen Tigers’ Sam Kings, who scored a hat-trick, the East Wales side fought hard for their win against a West side who were in the game right up to the last ten minutes.
A strong run from Koby Rogers gave West the lead in the ninth minute but Easts levelled straight away after Shane Small did well to pick up a grubber and run 10 metres to score. Morgan Jones converted.
West regained the advantage on 15 minutes. A nice one-two with Izak Aiono gave Lloyd Cokeley the try. Will Mordecai converted.
East levelled again when Mason Lloyd dived over quickly from dummy half. Jones converted, but West went into the break with a 16-12 lead due to Jude Thomas diving over with seconds to go and Mordecai converted.
The pendulum swung East’s way early in the second half when Sam Kings twisted his way through to score. Jones converted to give them an 18-16 lead.
Kings added his second and East’s fourth try from the first set after kick-off. Jones improved again to give East an eight-point lead which proved to be crucial.
West got back into the game with 13 minutes remaining thanks to an excellent cross-field run from Aiono who ended up scoring in the corner. Mordecai’s kick went in off the post.
But again East came back and again thanks to their outstanding captain Mason Lloyd with a near carbon copy of his first try. Jones converted to make the score 30-22.
Then Kings dived over for his hat-trick try and Jones converted to open the gap to 14 points and seal the win.
In the development game played beforehand, West Wales U14 were dominant, beating their East counterparts 50-12.
They quickly went 22-0 up in the first half with captain Ioan Jones scoring the first try on eight minutes. Two tries from vice-captain Toby Williams followed, along with one from Bowe Murray, with Jones adding three goals.
