14-MAN SEASIDERS ON THE UP
Penarth 27 Tonyrefail 15 – Saturday 2 March 2013
The gap between the two teams in the latest Ely Valley derby was actually 13 points as they kicked off on a wonderfully sunny afternoon, but this seemed to have narrowed dramatically after only two minutes. Lock Jon Boland was dismissed with a red card for his part in a ruck in the home 22, so Penarth had 78 minutes to work out how to handle this.
To say that they managed four tries for the bonus-point win that raised them above tenth in the table for the first time since mid-October suggests they did rather well. Of course they had to make it even more of a challenge by falling behind to a penalty from Tonyrefail’s main man, captain and number 8 Richard Baker after 10 minutes and it took them some time to work out they couldn’t quite manage with only seven in the scrum.
In fact, they were 17 minutes on the clock before the Seasiders hauled themselves into the lead. Having won solid field position after good work by forwards and backs, they were just starting to have a little difficulty breaking down a determined Ton defence when they worked the ball out to Rhys Morgan, who dummied inside to score.
Then, as they say, nothing much happened for about twenty minutes and as it began to look as if Penarth would have to make do with a 5-3 lead after 40- minutes, the visitors’ defence gave way as the ball was kicked away from a ruck near the line, which resulted in a yellow card and a line-out drive which ended in a Joe Page try.
All the early pressure in the second half was coming from the Seasiders, so with James Beaton moving up to the second row and Jimmy Crothers packing down on the blindside flank, they casually drove a scrum to the line as the Tonyrefail front row popped up. The referee had no hesitation in going under the posts to declare a penalty try. All credit to the forwards – that was the third one this season.
Penarth were running it from everywhere now and a storming burst from James Beaton didn’t get the reward it deserved as he misjudged the pass inside to the supporting Gareth Clancy and the visitors escaped further punishment. Worse than that, they began to look a bit lively and a short siege yielded a try for Baker in the corner, which he converted from touch.
The Seasiders weren’t going to take this lying down and as Clancy ran clear, he was supported by replacement Adan Cole, who set Mike Hurley up for a 20m dash to the line. The centre was caught just short, but the fast-arriving Dan Hofmann was unstoppable as he picked up and drove over.
Even with the bonus point in the bag and the score on a comfortable-looking 24-10, there was still time for Tonyrefail to make a point by driving through a single missed tackle as Baker scored in the corner and it was a relief when he missed the conversion to leave Penarth nine points in the lead instead of seven. A late Nathan Smith penalty sealed the win and scrum-half Ryan Thompson just had time to put in an appearance.
PENARTH Rhys Morgan, Henry Mitchell, Ben Donovan, Mike Rowe (Mike Hurley), James Crothers, Nathan Smith, Gareth Clancy (Ryan Thompson), Richard Merrett, Joe Page (Gary Power), Sean O’Sullivan, Jon Boland, Dan Hofmann, James Beaton, Elliott Smith, Scott Mackie (Adan Cole).
