Tuesday 28^th March 2017.

Year 9 march to St Helens’ final.

Gowerton year 9: 45 Morriston year 9: 22.

Williams’s treble and Hughes’s 20 point haul take Gowerton to the final.

Fly half Alex Hughes rounds the last defender to score one of his tries.

       Gowerton hosted Morriston at the Elba in the semi-final of the Swansea schools’ cup and produced a convincing performance to progress to the St. Helens’ final.

The hosts kicked off with the advantage of a strong breeze at their backs and fly half Alex Hughes exploited it to the full in the second minute when he found a good touch 30 metres from the visitors’ line.      Good work from lock Luke Penhalagan secured possession, centre Teigue Williams received the ball 40 metres out and set off on an arcing run that saw him score in the corner. Fly half Hughes maintained his good start with the boot by adding the difficult conversion from the touchline.

Lock Will Steadman powers forward.

       Five minutes later it was Hughes who scored when he benefited from the unselfish work of wing Alex Graham-Woollard who put him in space 30 metres out allowing him to sprint clear and cross for the second try.

Alex Davies bursts clear-Brad Evans is working hard to support. 

       Gowerton’s positive start was rewarded with a third score when good work by flanker Leo Pietrapertosa freed centre and captain Williams and he again showed his pace to sprint clear and score a try to which fly half Hughes added the extras.

The wind continued to be a significant advantage and with fly half Hughes, centre Gavin Williams and full back Matthew Davies all using it intelligently, Gowerton continued to dominate territory and confirmed their early dominance by crossing a fourth time. Fly half Hughes was again the beneficiary, this time as a result of the good work of flanker Sam Terry. Hughes added the extras and Gowerton’s lead was 26 points.

Brad Evans takes on two, but Izaak Beck, Charlie Brown, Alex Davies and Jay Jones are all close by.

The visitors weren’t prepared to go down without a fight and with No.8 Tom Lynch and lock Sufyan Massrojih becoming increasingly influential in the contact area they began to win the greater share of possession and deservedly opened their account on the stroke of half time when flanker Ethan Ware burst into the hosts’ 22, he was tackled short of the line, but prop Rhys Tremelling was on hand to pick up and power over for a score that gave his team a lift going into the second period.

Boosted by their score, the visitors started the second half on the front foot and with scrum half Joe Terry organising the forward effort impressively they reduced the deficit further when flanker Ware ended a well orchestrated series of pick and drives by crossing for a score that scrum half Terry converted.

Gowerton reasserted their authority by producing some excellent running and handling with flanker and man of the match Sam Terry to the fore. Initially, Terry, put wing Morgan Couch clear 30 metres out and he crossed in the corner. Fly half Hughes added the extras.

Then, prop Peter Legg-Davies powered over after a strong run from Darragh Cahill had established a position deep in the Morriston half. Fly half Hughes again converted. Finally, strong running centre Teigue Williams completed his hat trick finishing off after good work from scrum half Izaak Beck and lock Will Steadman.

Prop Peter Legg-Davies powered over for Gowerton’s sixth try.

       As at the end of the first period, the visitors confirmed that their spirit could not be doubted and they deservedly crossed for two further scores. First, pacey centre found the space to score in the corner and then with the final move of the game, accurate passing saw the ball moved wide resulting in lock Kian Edwards scoring in the corner.

However, at full time, it was the hosts who progressed to the final where they will play near neighbours Gwyr.

Photographs: Luke Penhalagan.