News

Aberystwyth RFC win WRU District H Plate Competition.

The Plate competition was introduced by the Welsh Rugby Union to provide District clubs with the opportunity to play rugby after a long period of inactivity due to Covid. Aber’s 1^st XV’s success in the competition was confirmed last Saturday. They should have played their final game in this competition at home against Milford Haven RFC, but their opponents declined to fulfil the fixture and so the home team were awarded full points. There is little doubt that had the game gone ahead as planned, Aber would have won comfortably.

As a result, they won the Plate competition having ‘played’ six games, winning five and losing one. They scored 25 tries and conceded only ten in the whole competition. These fixtures gave the club an opportunity to assemble a strong squad of senior players and enabled them to launch a second XV, Aberystwyth Athletic, who have started very impressively since their reintroduction to the club. They are building up a good following and should have regular fixtures for the remainder of this season.

This is an important development within the club’s playing structure for a number of reasons. Firstly, it gives players coming out of the Youth XV a better opportunity to enter senior rugby more comfortably than they might otherwise have done and it gives ‘old’ hands, whose first team days are waning, an opportunity to help bring on younger players, and finally, it puts pressure on 1^st XV players to perform better knowing that they have more competition for their places.

SWALEC league games will restart on Saturday 13^th November. Aber’s first match in Division 1 will be away against Yr Hendy. This will be a stern early test as meetings between the two clubs have been very closely contested in the past few seasons. It is hoped that Aber’s prospects will be strengthened by loud vocal encouragement from a large contingent of travelling supporters.