Historically the Welsh Cup & Wynne Lloyd competitions are the pinnacle of youth rugby across Wales. This season, 10 teams from the Cardiff Blues region will be competing in the quarter finals of the Konica Minolta Cup, Plate & Bowl on Saturday 4th March.
The fixtures see a number of sides going head to head in regional derbies. The fixtures including teams from the region are as follows:
Bowl
Aberaeron vs Treorchy
Llandovery vs Ynysybwl
Plate
Llandaff vs Tylorstown
Gilfach vs Pentrych
Abertillery vs Penarth
Cup
Mountain Ash vs Cowbridge
Dulais Valley vs Rumney
The Wynne Lloyd competition aims to give an opportunity for club based players to play and represent their Districts.
Cardiff & Vale District, Taff Rhondda District and Heart of Wales District aim to identify the most talented players aged 16 - 19 from across the Region.
On Monday night the teams attended an evening at the WRU Centre of Excellence to kick start their campaign and launch their new playing jerseys supplied to them by the WRU.
Ben Rose, WRU Regional Manager, stated: "We aim to give as much profile to the competition this year. I have tasked the Regional Coordinators with supporting the teams throughout the championship. The Cardiff Blues logo on the jerseys is important in providing the link to the regional player pathway."
Richard Hodges, Cardiff Blues Academy Manager identified the competition as an important step for some players.
"The U19s District sides underpin the regional structures and allow late developers an opportunity to be identified by the player pathway. We are looking forward to coming to games in order to see the standard of the players involved."
On the back of Monday night the teams enter the group stages of the competition with a few making the latter stages of the competition. There is still an opportunity for players from clubs throughout the Region to take part by contacting the Regional Coordinator in the area:
Heart of Wales - Gavin Dacey - [email protected]
Cardiff & Vale - Jake Thomas - [email protected]
Taff Rhondda -Christian Hitt - [email protected]
Players must;
-be under 19 on 1st September 2016
-be playing for a Club at Youth level for the District for which they are selected
-not have played more than 2 matches for a Regional Age Grade U18 team in the
2016/2017 season.
A full list of fixtures can be seen below:
1. 27th February 2017
Group 1 Gwent v Caerphilly / Taff Rhondda v Cardiff & Vale
Group 2 Bridgend v Heart of Wales
2. 6th March 2017
Group 1 Cardiff & Vale v Gwent /Caerphilly v Taff Rhondda
Group 2 Heart of Wales v Swansea
3. 20th March 2017
Group 1 Gwent v Taff Rhondda / Caerphilly v Cardiff & Vale
Group 2 Afan Nedd v Heart of Wales
Semi Finals
The Winners of Groups 1, 2 and 3 together with the “best runner up” will progress to the semi-final.
Semi Finals to be played on 17th April 2017 (tbc).
Final
To be played on 24th April 2016 (tbc).