The first month of the season has flown by, and across the club its been a good start for the Illts. The first team has had an excellent start to the division 3a East Central campaign, with 3 wins out of 3 with last Saturdays bonus point win at home to Llanharan (34-7) following hard fought wins at home to Penygraig on the opening Saturday (26-15) and away at Cardiff Quins (26-21). The illts are in third place just 2 points behind early pace setters Pontyclun and Canton having collected 13 points out of a possible 15 so far.The excellent league form made the rather meek bowl exit at home to Tylorstown all the more disappointing, so no cup run this year.Also pleasing to see several of the youth lads have already tasted first team action this season.
The youth have bounced back from a disappointing start which saw a bare 15 players take a heavy defeat away at Llandaff North, and then a late call off on the second Saturday of the season. A bonus away league win at St Josephs (31-13) was followed by a walkover in round 1 of the bowl, and a 17 all draw at home to Dinas in the league, leaving the lads with 1 win 1 draw and 1 loss from the first 3 league games. As mentioned above several of the boys have already stepped up to first team level which bodes really well for the club.
The minis continue to go from strength to strength, with over 120 players now registered less than 4 years after the mini section last relaunched, and teams from u7s through to u12s playing every Sunday morning. Its been a real pleasure to watch the various age groups adapt to new rules in the first month of the season as they move up the WRU pathway. The club continues to recruit for school years 1 to 7, with a bring a friend to training promotion running for the duration of the Rugby World Cup, giving existing players a chance to win tickets to the Wales Barbarians game in November. Hopefully an opportunity to watch the world champions!
October looks another exciting month with 4 league fixtures for both First XV and youth, and the Second team in cup action against Canton on October 12th (this will be the first time the Illtydians have fielded 3 Saturday teams for 10 years!) as well as the usual regular mini fixtures on Sundays.Support for all our teams is always gratefully received, we hope to see you at Moorland Park soon!
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