Aberavon RFC and Tata Steel Year 4 Rugby Program

Tata Steel Wizards League Fixtures

Wizards League 2013/2014 Summary

Education Staffing Solutions CUP

On Wednesday 21st May, Aberavon RFC held there annual CUP rugby and netball cup competition at Dyffryn Comprehensive School. The weather was absolutely amazing and the sport was even better.

The rugby turned out to be a great spectacle with great skill and determination from all on show. The group stages ended with Tywyn, Cwmafan, Blaenbaglan and Central winning the group stages.

New comers Bryn Primary school were exceptional on the day being their first competition for a couple of years. They were a pleasure to watch and it is hopeful that they will join the Wizards League next academic year. Groes, Eastern and Baglan were also terrific on the day.

The bottom two teams of each group entered the plate which led to a Semi-Final of Groes V Central A and Bryn V Eastern. Eastern and Groes made the final with Eastern winning at the end. Third place was taken by Central.

1st - Eastern
2nd - Groes
3rd - Central

The CUP Quarter-Finals saw Cwmafan take on Traethmelyn with Cwmafan winning that fixture. Tywyn took on Coed Hirwaun B and won. Blaenbaglan beat St Therese and Central B took on Cymer Federations with Cymer winning that game.

The Semi-Finals saw Cwmafan V Cymer and Tywyn V Blaenbaglan. Each game was an exceptional game with the two games remaining very tight until the end. Cwmafan went through along with Tywyn to make the CUP Final which turned out to be an epic battle of two teams that would not back down. The game was 0-0 right the way through and went into extra time. Cwmafan finally broke the Tywyn defence to score the sudden death winning try. Cwmafan winning the double. 

1st - Cwmafan
2nd - Tywyn
3rd - Central

A BIG thanks must go to Dyffryn Comprehensive School for facilitating the event, also the Dyffryn pupils who helped out on the day. All of the referees and umpires were fantastic. Warburtons came down and fed all of the referees and some teachers which was great. Ridgways coaches, who provided the logistics for the event were superb and patient. Lastly, ESS who sponsored the event should be thanked as the event would not be possible without them.

A Day In The Life Of The Aberavon RDO

Wizards League: Round 12

The Wizards League has come to an end for its fourth year. Cwmafan Junior school have managed to take the Wizards League title off Tywyn Primary School who have held the title for three years. Cwmafan have been a consistent threat to Tywyn for four years and their 20-0 win against Tywyn just after Christmas proved to be crucial. Cwmafan have been deserved winners as they also hold the best defensive record in the Wizards League also.

This season the Wizards League sure has been competitive with Traethmelyn enjoying a fine season  racking up the best points scored in the Wizards League. Between 4th and 8th place has been very interesting, Coed Hirwaun enjoyed a great season also finishing 4th. New entrants Cymer Federations and Groes have shown great improvement throughout the season and showing great developments by picking up some well earned wins.

In netball, it was a great season all round with Tywyn and St Therese battling it out at the end of the season for the title of the netball league. It ended 10-1 to Tywyn, with St Therese suffering a injury blow to their centre 5 minutes into the game. Nevertheless, Tywyn were victorious and retained the Wizards League for the fourth year running. Blaenbaglan have had had an excellent season finishing third and only losing three games. An excellent season. Cwmafan finished fourth due to points scored as they had only lost three games also. Awel Y Mor, Sandfields and Central remained very competitive with each other in the middle of the table, creating a very interesting season. Cymer and Groes finished at the bottom of the table but showed enormous signs of improvement throughout and with it being their first year in the league, next year they will be ready.

An excellent season all round for both rugby and netball. The Wizards League is becoming a very competitive league with standards improving each year. It is a credit to the children, teachers and parents involved that have created a safe and happy environment for the children to compete in. Competitive sport is very important to children as winning and losing can teach everybody so many values.

Creating an environment for the children for competitive sports is essential, however, the control of competitive attitude must be nurtured and controlled, this is done through teachers and parents. A positive attitude towards sport, winning and losing should be adhered to at all time.

Our sponsors are the key drivers that make this program available. A big thanks must go to Education Staffing Solutions, Baglan Bay Powerstation, Costain and Pump Supplies for sponsoring the program.

Lastly, Aberavon RFC thank you for making the Wizards League special. Till next year.

Wizards League: Round 11

The Wizards League is very much down to the last games. Cwmafan are ahead of Tywyn by one point with a game in hand. Cwmafan beat Cymer Federations and Blaenbaglan in rugby. Tywyn have two games left to play and Cwmafan have three. Traethmelyn have done very season currently sitting third in the league. Mixed result from games have left positions 3 to 8 very tight which shows that the league has been very competitive this season. Netball is still all to play for and looks down to one game, Tywyn V St Therese. This game is yet to be organised, but will be announced soon. Other than playing each other, both schools still have one more game each to play. Blaenbaglan have been outstanding this season remaining competitive throughout, only losing to the top two teams. Again, the middle of the table is very tight which shows great development in both sports. New entrants in Cymer Federations and Groes have improved dramatically from the start of the season. There is one round of fixtures left to play on April 10th and some rearranged fixtures to go in. All to play for.

Wizards League: Round 10

The Wizards League is certainly getting exciting as it draws to an end. With two more fixture rounds to play and some rearranged games to go in, the top of the table clashes are certainly close.

In rugby Tywyn move clear ahead of close rivals Coed Hirwaun and Central, however, Cwmafan who are also unbeaten could be tipped to win the title in the closing stages. Cwmafan beat Tywyn earlier in the league, that game could be the difference. Equally, the bottom of the league is just as exciting, the bottom four teams met this week which provided some special games.

Netball is set to be down to one game and that is St Therese V Tywyn, both schools unbeaten so far with Blaenbaglan very close. A slip up by either team could be challenged by Blaenbaglan. Games this week were again at high standards. The feature game was Tywyn V Traethmelyn in rugby with Tywyn just beating Traethmelyn 10-5, a huge effort by Traethmelyn who looked very competitive. Cymer recorded their first wins of the season beating Groes 10-5 and Baglan 20-0. Three newly added teams to the league who have all shown great gains in skill and confidence. Cymer netball have yet to record their first win of the season, although the new kit shows their intent in the league. Ones to watch. Awel Y Mor and Baglan remain competitive in netball along with Central.

Next fixtures on 27th March.

Wizards League: Round 9

The Wizards League has been dramatically affected over the last few weeks due to the horrendous weather that has occurred. Many games have been called off which has created a back log of games to be played. Fortunately, there was games being played on February 20th.

Traethmelyn who are the most up to date team in terms of fixtures played Groes and St Therese. St Therese are currently unbeaten in netball and remained unbeaten by beating Traethmelyn 10-0, in rugby Traethmelyn won 10-40 in a very good game. Traethmelyn also beat Groes 45-40, which was an even better game. Groes showing that they are the most improved team in the league this year. In netball, Groes lost 7-0. Coed Hirwaun, Central, Sandfields and Awel Y Mor travelled to St Joes to play games. Coed Hirwaun beat Awel Y Mor in rugby 20-10 and lost 1-11. St Joes beat Sandfields 15-10 in rugby and 11-6 in netball. A very good game of rugby between St Joes and Central created a 20-20 draw, with another draw of 2-2 in netball. Central also played Coed Hirwaun, Coed Hirwaun were unbeaten until they met Central who just beat Coed Hirwaun 10-5, with Central also winning the netball 9-0.

St Joes and Dyffryn Comprehensive School Champions

The final round of the Costain Secondary Schools League saw Dyffryn play against St Joes. This game turned out to be the deciding match with St Joes needing to win the game to win the Y7 title. The match was pretty even throughout, with a try being scored by each team in succession. Dyffryn held the lead at half time, winning 15-12. St Joes came out eager and a new side. Despite the great efforts at the ruck and tackle area by Dyffryn, St Joes managed to win the game 27-34. This game was the best game of the campaign. The game offered great attitude, competitiveness and plenty of skill. There we have it, St Joes are the winners of the Costain Y7 Wizards League. As you can see by the result above, the Y7 league has been very competitive, an objective achieved through the Junior School Wizards League.

Dyffryn ran away with the Y8 Secondary Schools Wizards League sponsored by Costain, winning 4 out of 4 games, racking up 183 points. Unfortunately, St Joes in this age group went without picking up a win, with Sandfields doing the double of St Joes. An excellent achievement by Dyffryn and they showed what a great side they are. Although school years is a number game and the roll over of children are different each year. The two leagues speak volumes in terms of what is happening in the Junior Schools. Since the development of the Wizards League in the Junior Schools, rugby has got stronger in Port Talbot—The Y7 program proves this.

A BIG thanks must go to Costains who have supported this program for its first year cycle . Costain have been influential in Port Talbot over the last four years constructing the ’Harbour Way’ which is the road connecting from Margam to Sandfields via the Steel Works. Costain have supported the development stages of the Junior School Wizards League for three years and have now committed in developing Secondary Schools rugby as a result of the growth of rugby in the Port Talbot area. Hopefully, Costain will continue to be involved at some level with sport in Port Talbot. Nevertheless, if not, Costain have done so much for the Port Talbot area in regards to sport. We should all be grateful to their enthusiasm and support.

TATA Steel TAG Rugby Festival [29th Jan, 2014]

As part of the Aberavon RFC and TATA Steel sports program TAG Rugby festivals were held in order for the children taking part to showcase their skills.

The Y4 children who took part received 4 on hour sessions of TAG Rugby and one visit from Warburtons as part of promoting Healthy Living and raising Physical Activity.

On Wednesday 29th January, 8 schools took part in the TAG rugby festival, they were:

Tywyn
Sandfields
Traethmelyn
Awel Y Mor
Eastern
Coed Hirwaun
Central
Cwmafan

With over 200 children taking part it was an excellent event with children contentiously playing sport for over 2 hours. Part of the element of the program is to offer development of rugby through TAG to promote awareness of rugby it hope that children will join local clubs. Also, the program offers development for the Wizards League and helps teachers identify talent for the future.

It was great to see the smiles on the children's faces as they enjoyed getting out of schools and getting some exercise. It is easy to play sport within school in the comfort of knowing who you are playing against. At the festival, the children are able to express skills against other schools and this encourages team work and determination.

The festival could not have been run without TATA Steel's influence and willingness to help out within the community via supporting this project. Also, thanks to Liam Evans and Mike Dyer of the WRU who also helped organise and facilitate referees for the day.

Many people collaborating to make Port Talbot a stronger place for the future. More pictures can be found here 

Wizards League - Round 8

Not many games featured in this round of the Wizards League. St Therese continued their unbeaten run in netball against Awel Y Mor winning 11-2. Awel Y Mor’s rugby team showing huge improvements gaining a 0-30 win over St Therese. Also, like St Therese, Tywyn continued their unbeaten run in netball winning 10-0 over Sandfields with Tywyn rugby team involved in a tough game against Sandfields. Tywyn won the game 15-5. Lastly, Traethmelyn travelled to Cymmer where they won both netball and rugby games 1-8 and 5-35 respectively. There are a lot of games to be played and these games are most likely to be held on January 30th and February 13th. Some exciting games are yet to come. Also, the annual Baglan Bay Cup competition is one for the diaries [Thursday 1st May].

Wizards League - Round 7

This week saw some convincing wins in the rugby, some tight games in netball and one or two great performances. Traethmelyn downed Eastern 40-10 in rugby and also winning 4-0 in netball. Eastern also played Tywyn in a catch up game with Tywyn winning both rugby and netball 30-0 and 10-0 respectively.

Sandfields beat Awel Y Mor in rugby 30-0 but a good tight game in netball saw Sandfields win 15-10. Cymmer Federations are still searching for a win as they lost to Blaenbaglan 10-30  in rugby and 0-10 in netball.

Some tight games in a three way game day between St Joes, St Therese and Groes took place. In rugby St Joes beat Groes 20-10 and drew 10-10 with St Therese. Whilst Groes beat St Therese 10-5 in a great match. Groes are showing huge improvements. In netball St Therese remain unbeaten winning 4-11 against St Joes and 11-1 against Groes. St Joes and Groes drew 1-1 in the netball game. Some great games are going ahead in the Wizards League.

Wizards League - Round 6

The Wizards League is very competitive this season with some good results all round.

Traethmelyn secured two wins over Awel Y Mor winning 40-10 in rugby and 4-2 in netball. Cymmer show that they are improving each week by getting a good draw against Eastern in rugby, yet Cymmer are still waiting for a win in netball with Eastern winning 0-4.

St Therese continue their fine form in netball beating Sandfields 11-1 but losing in rugby 0-30. Like Cymmer, Groes are showing great improvement in rugby earning a good 30-30 draw against Blaenbaglan.

No joy for the Groes netball team though as they lost 1-11 to Blaenbaglan. Tywyn also continue their unbeaten run in netball winning 10-0 over Cwmafan. A reverse story in the rugby as Cwmafan ended Tywyn’s unbeaten run in rugby winning 0-20. A very good result for Cwmafan as Tywyn until this point had not conceded a try.

Baglan traveled to St Joes to play two games. St Joes won 35-15 in rugby and Baglan won 3-7 in netball. Baglan are another team showing great improvements in rugby. Coed Hirwaun traveled to St Joes to play Baglan and Coed Hirwaun won 25-5 in rugby and drew 3-3 in netball. The wizards league sure is getting better and better each round.

Teams are improving, children and being more competitive and teachers are more committed and involved, its great to see and many people are talking about sport in Port Talbot. Coed Hirwaun and Cwmafan remain unbeaten in rugby and is set to be a great game. In netball, St Therese and Tywyn are also unbeaten which is also looking to be a great encounter. With so many strong teams in the league … upsets can be caused. School Sport!!!

Players Visit St Agnes Church

Today, Daryl Thomas [aka Trigger], Neil White [aka Chalky] and myself [aka The Swankman] visited St Agnes Church in Port Talbot to help the church put up their Christmas tree's and also to decorate our very own 'Wizards Tree'.

Chris Davies [left] and Neil White place star on Wizards Tree

The idea was put forward from Allison Murray and Mair John that each player of Aberavon RFC would bring in a black or red decoration for a Christmas tree and then decorate a tree in St Agnes. So ... today along with Mair and Katie John we went to work.

Daryl Thomas and Neil White help put up Christmas Trees

Still trying to put up 1 of 6 trees

All together we put up around 6 trees for other members of the church to decorate and of course our own tree. I must be honest, I did not do much as Daryl and Neil had it all covered, they were enjoying their time. I swept the floors and watched haha.

The trees were real pine trees that needed to be placed in buckets and filled with stones. At the end, the Church looked really nice and ready for Christmas. It was great to be involved in a community event like this and it was also great to see members of the Port Talbot community pulling together.

Another tree done and that lady has my broom

Thanks to Mair, Katie and Allison for helping out today and also to Neil and Daryl for their work also. A big thank you to the St Agnes Church for a warm welcome and their hospitality. Hope to see you all again soon.

Wizards League [Secondary Schools - Round 5]

There was an excellent fixture in Dyffryn V Glanfields this week at Taibach RFC, with Dyffryn eventually winning 29-26. The game was full of big tackles, skills and plenty of try’s. A very good indication that secondary schools rugby is getting better. The Y7 league is very close at the moment as Dyffryn need to play St Joes in the remaining fixture. If St Joes wish to become Y7 champions they must beat Dyffryn by 16 points. This game will be played in January 2014. The Y8 game between Dyffryn and Glandfields was very much one sided with Dyffryn winning 56-5. Dyffyrn’s Y8 team have been far to strong this season obtaining an undefeated record. However, there is still one more match to play and that is also against St Joes. St Joes have not won a game in this seasons campaign yet, but they could cause an upset. Regardless, the Y8 league title looks set to go to Dyffryn. Once these fixtures have been played, there will be a 10 and 7 aside competitions held at Aberavon RFC in the 2014 end of the season. This will give schools an opportunity to field two teams in the competition for an opportunity to win both competitions.

Wizards League: Round 5

The top of both the rugby and netball leagues tell a similar story with the same schools battling it out at the top. St Therese and Tywyn remain unbeaten beating Central [10-4] and Baglan [11-1] respectively.  Similarly, Tywyn and Coed Hirwaun are unbeaten at the top of the rugby league beating Baglan [30-0] and Groes [30-0] respectively. St Joes recorded their first win of the season against Cymmer Fed [15-45] which was a very good game. Cymmer played some very good rugby. Cymmer, Baglan and Eastern are yet to find their first win, however, the improvements in the all of the teams performances are positive. Similar story with netball with Traethmelyn and Groes still waiting for a win which will come soon. Sandfields won both of the games against Traethmelyn winning 10-25 in rugby and 1-11 in netball.

Please follow @AberavonRDO on Twitter and Facebook for updates #WizardsLeague

Central Junior School Tour of Aberavon RFC

Aberavon RFC welcomed Central Junior School at the Talbot Athletic Ground last week which was primarily for a photo shoot for the TATA Steel program that I run in the community.

I took the Central Junior School Y4 children around the ground to show them what kind of activities go on. I showed them the dreaded scrummaging machine [not so dreading for me, as I do not do a lot on it ;)] and also showed them the 'tump'. Now the 'tump' is the green area behind the Pump Supplies stand where the players and I are not too fond of. Its a place where we get hampered with fitness training. I showed the children exercises that we do such as; farmers walk with a tractor tyre, tyre flipping and the infamous prowler pushes - 'death by prowler'. A few children were able to have a go too. They enjoyed this part and had fun with taking part, they also had lots of questions.

We continued around the ground, then stopping at the changing rooms where I took 10 children at a time into the changing rooms and gave them a feeling of what it was like to be there on a game day - telling them about the music, the jokes amongst the players [clean ones of course]. I also showed them the gym, where sometimes we go as a team to get fit using weights. I showed them different functional exercise that we use specific for rugby.

The children again had many questions which were very entertaining and interesting. I would say they had a very good time at Aberavon RFC and the 50+ children that took part were very well behaved and were a privilege to have at the club.

Aberavon RFC V Bedwas RFC

Aberavon RFC are facing Bedwas RFC tomorrow night [Fri 29th Nov] at the game will bring a tough challenge as Bedwas are finding some form. We were unlucky last week against Cardiff to not win, but also not picking up a bonus point from the game, this was very disappointing. However, again we showed improvements which will be taken into the game tomorrow night.

Sadly, we lose Darryl Thomas who goes through a lot of work on the flank. We gain the services of Lee Purnell - who is a fine player. Jay Baker makes his first start for Aberavon and he looks sharp.

The forwards have a tough task against Bedwas, we have to win that battle first and then the backs can strike and cause Bedwas some problems.

As always ... get down to watch us play, we get better and better the more you are behind us. 7:15pm KO and Bring the Noise!!!!

TATA Steel Program [Coed Hirwaun and Cwmafan]

Today I was at Coed Hirwaun and Cwmafan running the third session of four of TAG Rugby as part of the program sponsored by TATA Steel. The Y4 classes are really progressing in their understanding of the game of TAG rugby and are finally adopting the rules into games and passing backwards and not forwards (which is always a relief).

Presently, the classes are learning skills of 1v1 (below), this gives the children a sense of direction to move FORWARD with the ball. This works well.

Cwmafan Junior School

Coed Hirwaun Primary School

The children then progress to 2v1 games, which helps them understand that 'if' the ball carrier gets TAG'd then they must pass to their team mate. This is a great exercise as the defender can understand to TAG the ball carrier, then give the TAG back before chasing the other player down. For the attacker, it is good to act upon being TAG'd to pass the ball straight away to keep the game alive.

Lastly, it is always good to finish with games of 5v5 or 7v7 so that the children can get used to playing a proper game of TAG rugby. I spend a long time on games so that I can teach whilst they play. I find children understand the rules much easier in game time, then 'skill' time.

Cwmafan Junior School