The Cardiff Blues under-18 squad wore the club’s jersey with pride throughout their campaign, according to captain Gwilym Evans.
The back row was on the score-sheet at The Wern on Monday, but his side weren’t able to hold onto their 100 per cent winning record in this season’s campaign.
Having seen his side initially bouncing back from an early 21-0 deficit in Merthyr, Dragons eventually ran away with the tie following a strong final quarter.
However, with three wins in the bag over the four games, Evans was proud of his side and believes the experience will stand the players in good stead for the future.
“The whole point of under-18 rugby as a block is to learn as a rugby player and get very good work experience of the game,” said the Ysgol Gyfun Glantaf pupil.
“We can take a lot of positives from tonight because of the learnings of the game onto our next teams and into the future.
“Overall there were a lot of positives coming out of this block.
“We were under the sticks after their third try, and Dan Fish told us we had two choices - keep letting them get through us or stand up for ourselves a bit more.
“To be fair to the boys, I hang my hat to them because they showed character but that alone won’t cut it at this level. It’s something that’s expected as a minimum.
“We can’t afford to go down by 21 points and then expect to come out with a good result from the game.
“The good thing about rugby is that we’ve had a group of boys coming together to work towards the same goal.
“There were a lot of new boys who have come in to train and fitted in very well. It’s good experience for those boys and it’s good to see how we’ve come together in a short space of time.
“Not many people get to play at this level, and it’s an honour to do that. It’s a big opportunity.
“Cardiff aspire to be the best region in Wales, and that’s the expectation when the boys come in. Over the four games you saw they wore the jersey with a lot of honour and gave it their all.”