Preview: Welsh Youth Cup Quarter Final.
Crymych Youth v Gowerton Youth
Crymych Youth entertain Gowerton Youth tomorrow in the quarter finals of the Welsh Youth Cup and coaches Tudor Harries and Kevin Phillips will be looking to make the most of their home advantage against a talented Glamorgan outfit. Writes Guto Davies.
Harries, a highly respected coach who has helped steer a regular flow of quality young players through to the senior ranks at Parc Lloyd Thomas in recent years says he is looking forward to this huge occasion and another chance to get a young Crymych side into the penultimate round.
The Preseli boys have been in a semi -final once before but Harries is well aware that his team will have to play very well tomorrow in what are likely to be very heavy conditions.
Speaking to Sportsline earlier today Harries said: “Yes this will be the biggest game of the season so far and our players are ready for it and looking good although we are still thinking about making one or two changes to the team that will suit this game in particular tomorrow.
“It will be a tough test for the players as we haven’t been at our very best at times lately even though we have been winning ,as it can be difficult to play at our best when results have been so convincingly in our favour.
“But certainly it will be a much stiffer test tomorrow against Gowerton, a team we have not faced before,
“Hopefully the weather will be in our favour as we are not the heaviest of sides so let’s hope for a dry afternoon.
“However saying that, our scrum is looking solid and I feel we can compete well in that department and I just hope the players keep their focus and don’t lose their concentration as the game goes on.
Forwards coach Phillips the former Wales and Neath captain will be looking towards front rowers in the form of Tom Crees and dynamic hooker Lee Griffiths to take the ball up and give the likes of back rowers Llyr Evans, John Hill and Llyr Davies the chance to make the hard yards and put the opposition under pressure.
Behind the scrum the powerful midfield combination of skipper Ifan Phillips and Sion Evans have the ability to slice open the Gowerton defence as they did against Abergavenny in the previous round.
Some of his key players were in the Ysgol Preseli team that lost to Ysgol Tre-Gwyr earlier this week, a school side that had a sprinkling of Gowerton players amongst their ranks
Harries though is not particularly worried about this and added:” From what I’ve heard from some who watched the game and a few of our players was the game was there to be won and there wasn’t much between the two teams.
“They will undoubtedly have some talented individuals in their line up as Gowerton RFC have always had a decent junior set up with good individuals coming through.
“But these are the types of games you want to play, if our boys can’t get themselves ready for this one then they should stay in bed”!
Asked about the prospect of reaching a semi-final with the current crop of youngsters Harries commented
“It would be very satisfying for me and Kevin as obviously winning the game is important and make no mistake we are desperate to win it but we will be looking at the performance too.
“We want to test ourselves against the best in the country and this match tomorrow represents a great chance to show what we can do”.
