West Wales Raiders under 15s travelled to Hull on Wednesday, (Apr 12) to participate in the prestigious 9s tournament.
After travelling for over 5 hours and going straight off the bus on to the pitch it took them the first half of their first group game against one of the strongest community sides East Hull to get in to the speed of things.
The second half saw the young raiders putting in a performance, which saw them beating East Hull 20-4. In their second game of the day it was a bit of a tighter affair as the young raiders came up against the famous Dockers. The Raiders put in an amazing defensive display forcing The Dockers to make errors upon which The Raiders capitalised coming out 16-8 winners.
In their last game before making it into the final the raiders under 15s put in a all round dominant performance and dismantled a York all blacks team 28-0.
The final saw The Raiders play against an experienced Olutan Raiders team from Leeds. The game was a very tense and tight encounter with both teams going tit for tat with tries. The dominant and hard hitting West Wales Raiders defenders again got the upper hand over the Leeds outfit and clinched the victory 16-12 to become this years City of Hull 9s Champions.
Head Coach Jon Ellis said “The players should be very proud of themselves, The Raiders defence today was at times brutal and our open field play was some of the best heads up rugby I have seen at that age group for a long time. West Wales is as I have always said full of amazing talent and this bodes well for the future of the Raiders.”
