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It was bonus time over and over again for the Youth Squad this last week.

Firstly, Dylan Bartlett was given a Dragons Academy Contract joining Iwan Burgwin, Garin Price and William Griffiths.  Next bonus was Cole Jones being selected for The Crawshays Welsh Youth team to play Christ College Brecon on Wednesday.  He become the 5^th player of our youth squad along with Callum Cottle, Tyler Lewis, Iwan Burgwin and Zac Hewlett to represent the Crawshays Youth.

The DC Youth team then won their first match in the league this season on the Welfare on Saturday against a very big and much older Bedwas Youth team.  The score was a bonus point earning 20 points to 10.

The DA team travelled to Caerphilly with the bonus that last year’s top try scorer and No.8 Garin Price was returning to the team for the first time this season after a long lay off through injury.  Playing up the slope with a howling wind against them the order of the first half was to defend and minimise the effects of the elements.  Caerphilly took the lead by 3 points to nil with an excellent long range penalty.  On the first of their 2 visits into the Caerphilly 22 during the entire first half, the ball was spun wide to second row Callum Cottle, who spectacularly threw a dummy bought by 3 Caerphilly backs and then he dived over to make it 5-3.  Caerphilly once again hit a very good long range penalty to lead 6-5.  The second of the 2 visits into the 22 saw a driving line out for Newbridge and hooker Joel Gilbert crashed over for 10-6.

Caerphilly then scored a very good try to take the lead again 13-10 and that seemed a bit of a result for Newbridge after so little territory and possession at the end of the first half.

The second half saw Newbridge lose both the kick off and a later lineout and Caerphilly were in again making it 20-10  Caerphilly’s outside had mastered the elements and was kicking extremely well.

No.8 Price picked up from 5 metres before feeding scrum half Jones who transferred to Joel Witcombe who was in a gap to crash over.  Robbie Turley converted from the touchline with a crucial kick.  Witcombe then went over for his second as the excellent Iwan Burgwin called a move from the back of the scrum. Many players were queuing up for the ball, only to all be used as decoys while Witcombe was hit and dived in. Turley nailed the 2 points for Newbridge to take a lead they would not relinquish again.

The Caerphilly 10 struck again with a low and hard kick perfectly judging the conditions to pull it back to 23-24.  Newbridge then went into the corner and the driving lineout was taken down illegally giving the penalty try that made it 31-23.  Caerphilly came back with an excellent try through the hands of their backline and their wing went in right at the corner.  The 10 was once again immense with the touchline conversion against the gails.  31-30 to Newbridge.

Next came the try of the afternoon from broken play between the Caerphilly 10 metre and 22 lines.  An unusual but highly skilled back line saw Burgwin feed Prop Hansen to literally touch it on to hooker Gilbert whose deft hands slipped it to loose head Nathan Evans for him to magically slide the ball to big lock Bartlett as a defender was bounced off by Bartlett who put in Price to raced unopposed 20 metres.  The stuff dreams are made of in front row heaven. 38-30.

With time up the new rule of being able to play the lineout off a penalty even though time is up came in.  Newbridge had one crack at a 5m lineout based on the rule before giving a penalty away allowing Caerphilly to clear to half way. They had a lineout which they in turn were penalised then Newbridge’s second attempt allowed the mercurial Burgwin to pull the white rabbit out of the hat and put Ethan Chess under the posts.  Burgwin then converted to finish with a bonus point earning score of 45-30.  This took DA back to the top of the Dragons Youth “A” League, maintaining their unbeaten run.